Chapter 41

At that time, there were fifteen knights from the Yellow-winged knights who had originally gathered at the southern gate for security and barricade construction, as well as twenty knights each from the newly arrived Black-winged and White-winged knights who were deployed there. They couldn’t gather more people as it would become impossible to fight in the chaos of a melee.

In addition, there were five knights from each order who were skilled in using bows and arrows, positioned on top of the castle gate. They shot their arrows towards the monsters attempting to break down the gate with serious expressions. However, before they could shoot, the deer-like monsters sensed them and retaliated by launching magic attacks, forcing the knights to defend themselves. It seemed that their attacks with bows and arrows were not very effective.

When I separated from Gazelle and headed towards where my troops were stationed, I slapped my cheeks to get myself pumped up. The gate’s imminent destruction was only a few more minutes away.

“I don’t know how much I can do… but I’ll do what I can!”

“… You seem to be quite fired up,” a voice I didn’t recognize said.

I turned in the direction of the voice and saw a young man with a face I had never seen before. He had light brown hair that was close to orange and bright green eyes. Although his gaze was a little intimidating, his facial features were well-defined. He wore a white uniform with a silver breastplate and white wing motifs on top.

However, it was natural that I did not recognize him since he was a member of the White-winged knights. Since he looked somewhat familiar to me, I stared at his face intently, causing him to avert his gaze as if he had stumbled.

“Have we met somewhere before?” I asked.

“No, this is the first time we’ve met,” he replied.

“I see.”

He seemed to be a vanguard knight like me. Since the members of the Black-winged and White-winged knight orders were mixed and stationed together in this location, the vanguard unit of the White-winged knights was right next to my unit.

‘Oh, wait a minute. Did he see me slapping my cheeks earlier to get myself pumped up? That’s a little embarrassing.’

“Hmph. You guys in the Black-winged order aren’t afraid of dying, are you? Even in this kind of battlefield, everyone is acting calm and collected…” the young man scowled at us and then muttered to himself.

Looking at him, I noticed his hand, which was resting on the hilt of the sword at his waist, trembled slightly.

“Damn it… Why did I even join? My father said there wouldn’t be much fighting against monsters if I joined the White Wing Knights, that it’d help my reputation in society, and create connections…!”

Ah, I remember now.

This guy was the one grumbling, “Tch… damn it. Why do we have to be the ones providing backup?” on the way to the city of Menonu and got reprimanded for it.

Well, I can’t blame him for thinking that way.

In this young man’s case, he was barely prepared to fight and suddenly had to engage in a defensive battle against a horde of monsters, right? Considering that, he’s really on hard mode!!

When I had my first battle, I thought I had gotten mixed up in a movie shoot, so the question of whether I’d live or die didn’t even come up. But if I had known from the start that it was a real battlefield, I probably would have been crying and begging for my life.

On that note, shouldn’t the White-winged knights’ enrollment system be reevaluated, considering situations like this could arise? Even if they’re sons of aristocrats trying to gain status, there will inevitably come a time when they’ll have to fight for their country. When that time comes, the ones who will suffer the most are them.

Ah, but I’m not one to talk. After all, the Black-winged knights even let someone like me, with an unknown identity who sneaked into the country, join their ranks. Looking back on it now, I really managed to join the group, didn’t I!?!?!?!

“Da…damn it… Why do I have to go through this…?”

…But still. Even though he’s so scared, he doesn’t run away.

Even if he wanted to run, he could probably leave the unit on his own.

Isn’t he amazing?

When I first fought pirates, even though I was convinced it was just a movie shoot, I was so nervous that I slipped on the floor and fell.

I quietly reached out my hand and placed my palm on top of his trembling hand. The young man looked at me with surprise.

“Even so, you don’t try to run away.”

“…Well, yeah…” he replied, fixing his bright green eyes on the surroundings.

What spread out before us was a truly tragic scene. The once bustling main street was now completely empty, with broken bows, arrows, and swords strewn about, and traces of blood splattered everywhere.

“…To be honest, I’m scared, and I want to run away. I could probably escape this town on my own if I really wanted to…,” the young man clenched his teeth as contorted his face in fear.

I then stared straight into his face, urging him to continue with my gaze.

“But, you know… When we arrived, the people of this town greeted us and said ‘thank you.’ They didn’t even know we were called Decoration Knights in the royal capital. Saying things like…thank you for coming to this town and not abandoning us.”

The words of the young man with chestnut-colored hair echoed softly. Before I knew it, we were the only two people having a conversation in our surroundings. Both the Black-winged Knights and the White-winged Knights were listening to our conversation.

“…I’m scared too,” I admitted while firmly grasping the still trembling hand of the young man.

“…Even as members of the Black-winged, you’re scared to fight?”

“There’s no one who isn’t afraid of fighting. But for me, rather than being hurt myself… I’m much more afraid of my comrades getting hurt.”

“…”

“Rather than seeing someone I might have been able to protect get hurt, I’d prefer to get hurt myself. That’s just much less frightening. Well, in other words, I’m more cowardly than anyone.”

That’s right. I’m scared of fighting, and just being on the battlefield already makes me hesitant. To be honest, I want to run away so badly. But even so, compared to the fear of seeing Gazelle, Felix, Iris, Leon, Commander Ortolan, and everyone in the Black-winged Knights get hurt and die, this is much more bearable.

…After all, I might be the cause of this situation.

If it means everyone would end up getting hurt, at least let me…

As I was thinking about that, suddenly, something tightly gripped my hand. Looking down, I saw the hand of the young White-winged member gripping mine in return.

“…What’s your name?”

“Me? I’m Takumi.”

“I, I see. Well, I can’t quite express it well, but thank you… I’m glad I got to talk to you.”

“Me too. When we get back to the royal capital, let’s talk some more if you’d like.”

As I said this with a smile, for some reason, the young White-winged Knights member’s face turned beet red, and soon became flustered.

W-what could it be?

Could it be that he thought:

“That was just a polite remark, I’d be in trouble if you took it seriously but is this for real, what do you think I should do?” and then got flustered kind of situation?

I-if that’s the case, it would be incredibly sad!