"Your Highness!"
A fool who does not know his own place.
That was the sentence that rose in Schnellia's head when Dunker shoved her aside.
What is he doing? Did he look down on this one? Did he think me weak enough to be struck down by an Outer God?
Before the confusion had even cleared, Dunker was run through by the tentacles.
'You idiot......!'
Schnellia was appalled.
She had wanted subjects who would give even their lives for her, but she had not asked for faith like this.
Did he intend to become some hero?
Throw away your life for nothing and this one does not even know how to shed tears for anyone.
She had lost a valuable talent far too quickly.
That sense of failure washed over her for only a moment.
'What...... is this?'
There was something left to appall Schnellia further.
Was Dunker Grimwald not perfectly composed even after being pierced head-on by an Outer God?
'Impossible.'
She had waged war against them at the front line.
Never mind an Outer God; taking an attack like that from an Apostle is a mortal wound.
The injured body is secondary.
Either the Erosion spreads through the whole body in an instant and you become a minion, or you cannot endure and melt away along with the curse.
And this was a Projection.
An Outer God's true body.
Schnellia had lost knights that way across fierce battles.
More than once or twice she had experienced a subordinate who had sworn loyalty moments earlier turning minion, forcing her to strike off his head.
'Dunker Grimwald, what on earth are you?'
His knowledge, his boldness, his technique for treating patients.
And it was not only that.
'Those eyes.'
In that instant, Schnellia had witnessed it clearly.
A strange light whirling in Dunker's pupils, and something carved into his body erupting outward.
'Aura...... no.'
The story that Dunker had a talent for aura and had luckily awakened did not fit.
There is no one anywhere who can use aura the moment they awaken it. For aura no better than a small child's hand-waving to repel a Projection's attack is absurd.
Which meant it was right to see it as something Dunker had possessed from the beginning.
'Does he see through everything?'
Dunker did not seem to be aware of it.
None of the knights who had witnessed the scene would have known.
But Schnellia was certain.
That man had just read every movement of the Outer God, and refused the approach of the Erosion source itself.
'Surely not.'
In that moment a single word rose in her head.
'The Eye of Dark Discernment.'
Said to have been wielded by a hero who once saved the continent from a disaster-class calamity and then vanished without a trace.
Pupils out of a legend, handed down like an old tale.
Even while reciting to herself that it was impossible.
For some reason the illusion arose that she was looking at the protagonist of that very story.
***
"Young Master!"
Before I knew it Charlotte was at my side. She repelled the tentacles.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah. I do not feel anything in particular."
"Truly? How on earth."
I do not know either.
Just in case, I used Diagnose on myself.
[Diagnose]
[Dunker Grimwald / Male, Age 20]
[No symptoms]
[Alopecia suspected]
"Oh, for—"
Alopecia.
Translated, that is hair loss.
I felt a crisis of life and death in an entirely different sense.
Then again, Father does have a broad forehead.
"Is there a problem? So you were exposed to the Erosion after all——!"
"There is. A very big one. It is a matter my whole life depends on."
"Young Master!"
The hand Charlotte held her sword in trembled.
"When you are ready, tell me. Before you degrade into a minion, I will at least strike off your head with my own hand."
"Ugh, what an ominous thing to say. It does not hurt, it does not hurt. Could you stop making that face?"
I had no idea how I had come through an attack like that without Erosion.
Constitution?
If that were it, there did not seem to be a single case of anyone resisting Erosion so far.
'In the original history I was the host, though.'
The original work is set several decades after now, so I do not know exactly what the incident was in which I was eroded.
"An opportunity that falls into your lap by luck has to be seized."
—Ssssss......
The Outer God had the air of observing the situation.
Somehow the tentacle movements felt aimed at me. The attention was uncomfortable.
"Dunker Grimwald."
"Waugh."
Suddenly I felt a cold, soft sensation on both cheeks.
Schnellia had taken hold of me and was pushing her face uncomfortably close.
I could not even get away.
"Show me your eyes."
"What are you doing. I am fine."
"It is gone. An illusion? It cannot be."
It was the first time I had seen Schnellia flustered.
"I do not think this is the time."
"......That is true."
Only then did she let me go.
Nothing had been resolved yet.
I turned and looked at it.
Schnellia adjusted her grip on the longsword.
"I will bring it down here and now."
"What are the odds?"
"One in ten."
Schnellia answered flatly.
Her judgment would not be wrong.
"I agree. The formation is far too poor. We were ambushed, and the elevation difference is large."
"If we cannot subjugate it here it will enter the Empire."
Schnellia looked ready to charge the enemy that instant. Her expression was frightening.
"Quite right, but is it not also important to raise our odds?"
"Do you have a good plan?"
"The textbook is the best tactic."
I looked around at the situation and continued.
"We need to join the reserve unit and reinforce our strength by reorganizing. The enemy is enormous, so we should change the formation and take the high ground. And on top of that, our knights."
I used Diagnose and looked around.
"Because it is right after the eighth-floor assault, there are a great many injuries large and small. The enemy attacks the mind, so morale has dropped too."
"A valid opinion. But you know well that it is impossible. It is heading upward."
"What if we break through the floor?"
"The floor?"
Schnellia's eyes went wide as though she had not considered it.
"We cleared the monsters down to the eighth floor. And below that the Outer God devoured everything."
"That is so, but."
"Meaning that even if we open a hole, there are no monsters left to come up. We drop the Outer God down to the depths and buy time."
"That has merit."
Schnellia nodded.
I added.
"Also, the Apostle remains on the seventh floor. The giant Cave Centipede we passed by."
"It does."
"That Apostle had no intelligence. It moves on the instinct of chasing prey that enters its burrow."
"Which means, surely......?"
"It will grab the Outer God's ankle in our place."
The corner of Schnellia's mouth rose faintly.
She soon snorted.
"It is fortunate I appointed you commander."
"You are too gracious."
"Lionheart! Spread the crane-wing formation. We attack the Outer God's feet!"
The knights moved swiftly in a rush. They surrounded and encircled the Outer God.
"Watch the tentacles! Deflect them!"
"Hyaap!"
It was like a dazzling laser show lighting up a high-rise.
Aura of every color cut through tentacles as they advanced.
"Haap!"
"Take this!"
The knights began hammering the Outer God's feet in unison.
Boom! Boom! You would have thought they were ramming it with siege engines. In an instant the ground cracked and bedrock flew in every direction.
—Ssssss......!
The Outer God seemed to sense the danger too. It stretched out tentacles and swung.
Even so, the Lionheart's staying power was considerable. Under the command of platoon-leader-class Sword Experts they blocked, cut and broke through the attacks and smashed away at the ground.
"Your turn, Your Highness."
"All hands, fall back."
—FWOOSH!
Schnellia gave off an aura unlike any I had seen before.
Her heart pounded madly like an eight-cylinder engine, breathing the power of a miracle into her body.
"I make a Covenant."
Whoosh! The whirling aura came to a clean halt.
A Covenant.
The power to pay a price, twist the laws of the world, and fix them in place.
"For the next twenty-four hours, this one offers up her left leg."
Clank! Aura bound her left leg in the form of a chain.
"The power to reach the Release."
Shk! Schnellia leapt into the sky.
She gripped the sword in reverse and charged at the ground.
"Form, True Name Release."
CRACK!
She stabbed precisely into the core of the fissure at the Outer God's feet.
"White Night......!"
A brief silence.
And then.
—KRAKABOOOM!!
Blazing the underground where darkness had settled into pure white.
A white night, quite literally recreated.
'So that is Schnellia's Release.'
It is a technique permitted only to aura users of Expert rank and above.
You transform the weapon in your hand into the form that best suits you, maximizing your aura's influence.
The blade driven into the ground held aura as it scattered outward in fragments.
Like snowflakes holding sunlight.
—KRUMBLE!!
It was like a volcano erupting.
The cracked ground could not withstand Schnellia's output and shattered apart, collapsing.
—Ssssss......!
The Outer God sinking.
In an instant it was sucked into the fallen ground until not even a tentacle was visible.
"We did it!"
The operation was a success.
Push it down into the depths like this and we would buy days at minimum.
The Lionheart Knight Order, and even Charlotte, marveled at Schnellia's firepower and let their tension go.
Then it happened.
—SNAP!
"Huh."
A bad sensation came at my ankle.
"Oh, hell."
A tentacle that had shot out from beneath my feet had me firmly.
As if it meant to take me down to hell with it.
"Aaagh!"
"Young Master!"
Charlotte reacted at once and tried to catch me, but it was not enough.
I was dragged toward the collapsing depths.
Ah, my luck really is bad today.
Floating.
The sensation of my body being freed from gravity.
This is seriously bad.
I am an ordinary person.
Fall from this height and it is a critical injury.
In the moment cold sweat ran down me.
"Grimwald."
A calm voice came at my ear.
Streaming black hair wrapped around my face.
"Your Highness."
At some point Schnellia had leapt down with me as I fell and had wrapped herself around me.
"Hup."
Holding me with one arm, she traced a great arc.
Fwak! At the same moment as the tentacle was cut away.
—SCREEEEE!!
A hair-raising shriek I had heard before.
The Apostle Cave Centipede had come right up in front of us.
—CRAAASH!!
My ears went deaf at the explosive roar of the Outer God and the Apostle colliding.
A high ringing sounded.
I was buried in dust and lost consciousness.
***
"Fried chicken!"
I shot upright.
Seeing your life flash before your eyes twice in one day is a rather uncommon experience.
"So I lived."
I looked around. It was pitch dark with almost no light coming in.
The dust had apparently not fully settled; my throat was acrid.
"You are awake, Dunker Grimwald."
I heard a voice.
When I turned my head, Schnellia was sitting propped against a rock.
"Your Highness. Are you all right?"
I ran over to her and checked her condition.
Diagnose does not work on Schnellia.
I had to check with my own eyes.
"A fall from this height is no problem."
Schnellia's hair was damp with sweat and stuck to her cheek.
I guessed it immediately from her voice.
"You overexerted yourself."
She was covering her left leg with her arm.
When I lifted the arm, the thigh was badly torn and the bleeding was considerable.
"Did this happen because of the Covenant?"
"Mm. For one day I cannot move this leg, after all. It seems it was scraped against rock as I fell and tore open."
"And in that state you thought to leap down with the Outer God."
"Better than losing you."
Schnellia answered flatly.
Does this woman think her body is made of iron?
"You need immediate treatment."
I looked around.
I was lucky. My house-call bag had fallen not far away. I must have had it on me.
I checked the contents. Most of the flasks were broken, but fortunately one or two were intact.
"I will treat you, Princess."
"No. It will heal if I wait. Do not look at the wound so much."
"What are you talking about. The diameter of the rupture is over ten centimeters. And the bleeding is severe."
"I...... must not show weakness."
What insane thing is she saying?
Schnellia avoided my eyes and put strength into her body, trying to get up.
What insane thing is she doing?
"Your Highness Princess Schnellia."
I took her shoulder and pressed her down.
"Do not move until the treatment is finished."
"Is that counsel?"
"It is a doctor's order."
She snorted as though dumbfounded.
"How would it be if word spread that this one, the Empire's Greatest Sword, was wounded so badly she could not even walk?"
"That is Your Highness's problem."
There was not enough cloth.
For want of anything better I took off my shirt and used it to staunch the bleeding.
Schnellia drew a sharp breath.
"You, what do you think you are——"
"I have to treat you, so save the complaints for later."
And so the most wretched surgery began.