TRHK Chapter 5

The interrogation—delivered in a tone entirely unsuited to the circumstances—made my head spin more than the situation itself. I stared blankly as my skirt was used to wipe the sword clean. Each time the hard flat of the blade pressed through the fabric, my thigh hidden beneath it flinched like a nerve misfiring.

"Well?"

The roughly wiped sword passed between my chest and rose to just below my chin.

"Answer me. Little rat."

He tilted my head up with the flat of the blade. The face I'd thought angel-beautiful looked even more unreal with all of this layered on top of it.

'He's still calling me little rat.'

That was the thought occupying my mind at the precise wrong moment.

"Kahron! Are you going to lower that sword or not?"

A sudden shout thrust itself between us. I startled badly, shoulders jumping—Kahron let out a tch and lowered the sword in one sharp motion.

"Unauthorized desertion wasn't enough for you, so now you're threatening a woman?"

The man who appeared in armor that would have rung like a bell at the merest contact was none other than Knight Commander Landale. Behind him, knights poured out of the tree line in a crowd.

"Lady!"

Seyron—who addressed me as "Lady" without exception—was among them. His entire body twitched as though he wanted to sprint over immediately, but he couldn't quite bring himself to break ranks without permission.

"Are you all right?"

Landale approached once Kahron stepped aside and extended his hand. I had been sitting on the ground; I grabbed his gauntlet and managed, barely, to get upright. My legs were still trembling in a way I couldn't stop.

"Explain the situation."

I assumed he meant me—but Landale's eyes were on Kahron. Kahron replied with perfect ease, or something very close to a grumble:

"That one dragged an orc here with her. I dealt with it."

An orc—that was the green monster? Then it wasn't technically wrong. But Landale didn't let it pass.

"And just now—was that 'dealing with it' as well?"

He was apparently calling Kahron to account for pressing the blade to my chin. Kahron, apparently without anything to say to that, looked deliberately elsewhere. Landale turned to face me.

"You're one of the castle's maids, aren't you? What were you doing out here? Did you not know this forest was dangerous?"

This was the second time I'd encountered Knight Commander Landale, and the second time I'd been scolded by him. I had come to understand the dangers of this forest through direct and thorough experience, having had no idea before.

"I got lost... I'm sorry."

I mumbled my apology. Landale frowned at me with visible suspicion but pressed no further. More precisely, what came next left him no room to think about it.

KROOOAAAARRGH!

The same cry the dead orc had made rang out through the whole forest. Not one cry this time—many, overlapping. My body locked on instinct. That sound reached something buried deep and dragged it upward.

"It's an orc pack. Everyone, on guard!"

Landale drew his sword and shouted. The eyes of the knights shifted as they moved into combat formation. The air around us pulled taut.

"KROOOAARRGH!"

"North-northwest—o-orcs!"

"Damn! Orcs to the east as well!"

The fighting broke out in an instant. The orc pack and the knights collapsed into separate knots of violence. The only two left standing still were myself, and Kahron.

"Lady! Please—find cover!"

Seyron had his sword up against an orc and was shouting in my direction.

But there was fighting on all sides, and nowhere to actually hide. If I bolted carelessly, I might throw myself directly into an orc's axe or a knight's sword. The memory of the arrow was still sharp. I had no interest in being introduced to another weapon the same way.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

An ominous sound crept into my ears. I flinched and spun around—and an orc was stepping out from behind a tree. Bright, burning eyes fixed on me.

'No—I need to run, the other way—'

But the knights blocking every direction were already deep in their own battles. No gap to run to. Nobody free.

And then—from a short distance away—I met Kahron's eyes. He was standing there with the idle air of someone who had nowhere particular to be. The corners of his eyes curved, just slightly. Even in this situation, the sheer force of that face made me lose myself for a moment.

Terrible timing. Noted.

"KROOOAAAARRGH!"

The orc came rushing at me, axe swinging. Watching this happen, Kahron did not move. If anything, his eyes lit with the particular brightness of someone about to enjoy a good show.

I forced strength into my exhausted legs and dodged. But as I had established—there was nowhere to run. The orc caught up almost immediately and hauled its axe high overhead. I gave up on everything, shut my eyes, and braced.

"Kahron! Your sword—now!"

Knight Commander Landale's voice. A moment later, something cut through the air in front of me.

Thud. Something large dropped, and the ground shuddered. I snapped my eyes open. As expected, the orc that had been attacking me lay crumpled, bleeding.

Kahron had saved me with a completely indifferent expression—and then, while Landale was still busy commanding and fighting, addressed him with absolute serenity:

"Weren't the others complaining that someone who isn't even in the order keeps pushing in too much?"

Busy as he was, Landale apparently caught every word. A vein stood out sharply on his forehead.

"Can you not see what is happening! That conversation can wait!"

"You'll discipline them for me, won't you, Commander."

The smile at the corner of his mouth and the cajoling tone were exactly those of someone wheedling a lover—except the content was something else entirely.

"Fine!"

Landale ground it out through his teeth. Kahron had not only reported his grievance to the commander mid-battle but apparently required a confirmed promise of punishment before he launched himself into the fight at last.

"KRAAAAAARRGH!"

"KROOOAAAK!"

The knights had been losing ground against the endless tide of orcs—the moment Kahron joined, the advantage swung decisively in one stroke.

With every sweep of the red-haired knight's sword, at least two orcs went down spraying green blood. Monsters that another person would stake their life against and still might not defeat—he was cutting them down without apparent effort, a faint smile still on his face, as though this were light morning exercise.

The orc pack stumbled backward in confusion. But Kahron had clearly decided not to let a single one escape. He stole even the orcs that other knights were already engaged with and killed those too.

"Incredible..."

There was no other word for it. Landale and Seyron and the other knights were fighting hard—I could see that clearly. But Kahron's sword was different in some way that even I, who knew nothing about this, could not fail to see. Much faster. Far more powerful. Brutal in a manner that felt almost absolute.

The descriptions I had skimmed past in the novel—rendered in flat text, easy to glide over—materialized in front of me as something real, and every half-formed uncertainty dissolved.

No luminous aura shone from his blade. That mark of the Sword Master was nowhere visible.

But I was certain.

He was the red-haired knight from the original.

"Lady Maylin! A-are you all right?"

Seyron's neat ponytail had disappeared somewhere along the way; his hair was half-wild as he worried over me. I found I was worried about him in return.

"I'm fine. Are you?"

"I-I-I'm fine."

That flushed face—was it embarrassment, or exhaustion? This time I genuinely couldn't tell.

I looked at Seyron with complicated feelings. He was someone I had spent considerable effort trying to befriend. Under the weight of my transparent stare, his breathing began to stagger again.

"H-hrk—hk. S-sorry. My breath is... again..."

"It's all right. Go somewhere else."

Seyron bolted as though he'd been waiting for exactly that permission. The distance from me would help—it always did.

"......"

That particular problem was why befriending him had failed, at any rate. Should I feel relieved that the red-haired knight had turned out to be Kahron rather than Seyron? But...

"The orc's blood has uses—collect it in bottles and bring it back to the castle."

At Landale's order, the squires with their flasks moved in swift, coordinated lines. A few knights, however, were conspicuously fidgeting—watching Landale's expression carefully. When Landale's gaze settled on them, they flinched hard.

"Starting tomorrow, all of you are on intensive drills. If you have the energy for petty rivalry, you clearly aren't slacking on your training."

"C-Commander, we—we made a mistake—"

"Shut your mouths."

Landale's withering look swept across them and then landed on Kahron, who was yawning with complete serenity. Kahron didn't flinch the way the others had—but he did quietly lower the hand he'd been yawning behind.

"You. Escort the maid back to the castle."

Kahron's expression soured immediately.

"Why me? Make someone else do it."

"We're stopping at the temple to purify the orc's blood on the way back."

"Then bring her along with you—"

"If you're going to refuse orders, leave the territory."

Kahron's grumbling mouth shut at once. I stared at the knight commander's force with something between genuine admiration and alarm, and then cut quickly into the conversation:

"I—I can get back on my own once I'm out of the forest."

Landale turned toward me. Looked at me.

"I won't ask again why you were in this forest. However, we are the Courtner household's knight order, and it is our obligation to see the castle's maid returned safely."

"Kahron isn't part of the order, though, is he?"

Hwirozen appeared from somewhere unannounced and offered this objection with no apparent sense of the room. Landale turned the full weight of his gaze on him—this time it genuinely was a glare—and a sufficiently chastened Hwirozen pivoted immediately to urging the rest of us forward.

"All right, all right! You all heard the commander! Let's get moving!"

And so I had no choice but to make hurried farewells and follow Kahron.

"I will be checking later to make sure she arrived safely!"

Landale's warning from behind. Kahron didn't bother responding. His face communicated nothing but inconvenience.

"......"

Kahron walked through the forest path without glancing in my direction at all. Under normal circumstances, keeping pace with those strides wouldn't have been difficult—but right now my legs felt like they were screaming. The fear of losing him made me open my mouth quickly.

"Thank you for everything today—truly!"

No answer. I kept going.

"You saved my life. Twice."

I meant it. Not once but twice, he had pulled me out from in front of those orcs. Whether it had been done because of someone else's orders didn't change anything. Gratitude was gratitude.

Kahron's retreating back grew steadily farther. Without him, I had no clear idea how to get out of this forest. My legs gave out again despite my best efforts, trembling through every step.

Thump.

I sat down heavily on the ground. Having resigned myself to it, I began thinking through how to make it out of the forest alone. As long as no monsters appeared, it didn't seem completely impossible.

"Ngh."

And then the man who had been walking coldly ahead suddenly stopped. It didn't look like belated regret at abandoning me. He pressed one hand over his forehead and made a low sound.

"Ha..."

The labored exhale carried all the way to where I was sitting. I had been leaning against a tree; this sudden development made me drag myself back to my feet.