The moment I heard the voice coming from the little knight’s mouth, I had no choice but to doubt my ears.
“A duel?”
Was that something one could casually say?
Though it was dressed up in lofty language, a duel usually meant fighting with the resolve to take the other person’s life.
What was more, we had only met for the first time today. Why was this kid treating me like a mortal enemy over a single position as the duke’s daughter’s attendant?
[Quest Issued!]
[Defeat the “Knight Pretender” who is picking a fight with you.]
[Reward: Main Story Progression]
The Status Window was making just as much of a fuss.
A quest? Why had something that had only appeared in dungeons or events before shown up here?
‘...What should I do?’
The reward was certainly appealing.
Main Story Progression.
It seemed likely that I would have to defeat this guy before I had a chance to meet Luciana.
Or maybe it would raise her Affection, which had sunk even deeper than the floor.
But there was one thing that bothered me.
“This little brat has some nerve.”
“L-little brat?”
“Calling yourself a knight when you can’t even draw out mana properly, and you want a duel?”
Hans used Taunt!
I was an outsider who had only arrived here today.
I could not let myself get off on the wrong foot from the start.
All I had to do was say that he should duel only after earning a knight’s title, and point out that a pipsqueak like him could not bear the name of the noble duke’s daughter.
That was a perfect response by noble etiquette standards.
‘Even as an outsider, I can give them the image of someone very courteous who respects the duke’s daughter.’
Just then.
The boy, who had been huffing through the visor of his helm as though indignant, had a transparent aura gather around his sword.
Uh, this is a bit...
My sense of danger sharpened to a keen edge.
Come to think of it.
This was...... an emergency mission.
‘Damn it, I should’ve noticed when it called this an emergency battle! Or when the Main Story was put up as the reward!’
Sweet rewards came with a price.
In this game, emergency missions were synonymous with death flags.
[What do I do with this emergency mission? Take it or not?]
└[Definitely take the emergency mission.]
└[The reward for this is ridiculously good.]
└[I took that advice at face value and quit the game.]
They had often driven people in the game toward the path of what players called rage-quitting.
I was certain.
The knight’s actions and voice were somewhat childish.
But the knight was perfectly accustomed to armor, there was no hesitation in the hand gripping the sword, and above all, there was that aura shimmering like a heat haze!
The opponent was absolutely not a mere Knight Aspirant, as the Status Window called them.
At least in skill, they were on par with a knight.
The game had a button to refuse missions, but reality had no refusal button!
Tension rose to the edge of my throat.
‘Just coating the entire blade with mana already makes them no different from a knight.’
“If you give up the duel and return to the West even now, I won’t pursue you.”
“Aren’t you worrying too soon? We haven’t even started.”
The knight suddenly said that as though extending a small measure of mercy, but.
‘I can’t pull back here.’
The hostility toward outsiders seemed quite intense, but I was far more desperate.
I picked up the sword at my feet.
[Main Story Assigned. Encounter ‘Luciana Speda’.]
The Status Window appeared in my right peripheral vision.
I absolutely could not give up the duke’s daughter’s attendant position if I wanted to follow the Main Story this kid had presented.
“I can tell just from how you hold your sword. It looks like it is your first time holding one.”
“.......”
“Hmph. Earlier, you mocked me for not being able to coat my sword in aura.”
“Unfortunately, I lack talent in that regard.”
Strictly speaking, it was not my first time.
This body—in other words, Hans’s—definitely had experience holding a sword.
It just had a damned lack of talent for swordsmanship.
Even if I could use aura, I did not have enough Magic Power to coat even a dagger with mana, much less that broad sword blade.
The knight’s voice grew bored.
“This will make for a dull match.”
“Who knows? You only know which is longer and which is shorter once you put them together.”
“Anyone can talk. You have to prove it with actions.”
A few seconds later.
A sharp sword strike skimmed past me.
It was a blow the old me—whose only fighting experience was arguments with my younger sister and hurling insults online—could never have dodged.
No, it was a blow I ‘wouldn’t have been able to’ dodge.
“...Hm?”
“Yikes! That was close.”
The knight’s impressive attempt came to nothing.
The air split in place of its target, me. Again and again.
My clumsy body swayed through the incoming killing intent.
“Oh.... I really can’t tell how this will end.”
“Watch your tongue. There’s no way she can lose. It would be a problem if the du—no, if the knight lost.”
“It’s too late already. The moment we put the person we’re escorting in danger, our pay cut is certain. Let’s just enjoy this duel.”
The surrounding soldiers whispered among themselves.
It was an acrobatic feat of evasions by a paper-thin margin.
Of course.
This unexpected showing was all thanks to the buffs from my Job and Skills.
‘I’m glad I learned that secret manual.’
[Skills]
[S Grade: Appearing and Vanishing Like a Ghost]
[Phantom Thief Class-Exclusive Skill]
[The foundation of every Phantom Thief is miraculous footwork that toys with every sort of guard. It is an esoteric technique that successive Phantom Thieves painstakingly improved across generations, finally bringing it to completion.]
[During stealth actions, greatly reduces the chance of being detected by enemies.]
[When attacked by an enemy, greatly increases evasion chance.]
[When parrying, adjusts counterattack damage based on Agility.]
Even with only a rat’s-tail amount of mana.
It was enough to activate the Skill.
Whenever a sword thrust came at me, I could clearly see its attack path a step ahead, drawn in translucent color.
It felt similar to the game, so I did not even need time to adapt.
I could see it all. There was no way I could fail to dodge.
With the relic’s effects added to that, I was truly a god of evasion.
“......!”
“!! ......!”
As the surroundings grew noisy.
I frowned as I watched my opponent.
As I kept dodging, I realized that the knight’s swordsmanship felt familiar.
‘This is Northern standard swordsmanship.’
Swordsmanship that prioritized instantaneous firepower in order to pierce monsters’ tough hides.
It was the most orthodox swordsmanship of the North.
However, it sacrificed some speed, making it an ambiguous technique that did not perform particularly well in duels.
It was a sword form that even Northern knights used only as a basic technique.
“You aren’t all talk.”
“The West is just as dangerous as the North. You need at least one skill to survive, don’t you?”
“Posturing suits you. You can’t do anything to me, either.”
‘That hit a sore spot.’
The brat was right. The knight’s sword had not grazed me even once, but.
My swordsmanship was such a mess that all my clumsy strikes were blocked by my opponent.
I was so untrained that I was starting to run out of breath.
Then.
The sword flying in diagonally twisted cleverly.
“You will eventually tire of dodging. If this continues to the end, victory is mine.”
“Ghk?!”
“You dodged that too. Very well. Let us see how long you can keep dodging.”
‘This little bastard changed swordsmanship!’
I frantically kicked off the ground and threw myself to the right.
The knight charged in abruptly.
The greatsword had been discarded somewhere, and the swift swordplay now on display was unmistakably a style specialized for duels.
‘......!’
To make matters worse.
A tingling sensation rushed through the back of my head.
The condition commonly called being out of mana.
For now, it was only a tingle, but.
At this rate, my mana would run dry first, and I would end up rolling on the ground.
In that case.
I had no choice but to make a decisive gamble as well.
Gritting my teeth, I kicked off the ground and charged at the knight.
“What?!”
My opponent showed surprise, but immediately composed themself and raised the sword again.
But their response was too late.
I discarded my sword and thrust out a small golden rod in its place.
The moment Tute, filled with mana, touched the helmet, its power fully revealed itself.
If they were using swordsmanship specialized for fighting people, it was only fair for me to use a relic specialized for fighting people too, wasn’t it?
The distance between us had grown close enough for me to hear even their breathing.
-CLICK.
The visor protecting the face dropped first.
Then the leather strap by the chin, tightened to fit the wearer’s face, came loose on its own and fell onto the snowy ground.
Naturally, my opponent’s face, which had been hidden beneath the helmet, and the silver hair that had been concealed came into view.
“Uh?”
“Uh?”
Bewildered voices overlapped.
The confusion of the soldiers watching the situation, and the bare, lovely voice freed from the steel helmet.
But the most surprised person was none other than me.
“W-what? Why is the duke’s daughter here?”
“.......”
[Emergency Quest Completed]
[Reward Granted.]
[Conditions met to encounter ‘Luciana Speda’.]
...That was the reward?!
Right after meeting my favorite character.
Before I could even gather my addled thoughts from the unexpected reward, a flood of information immediately poured forth from the Status Window.
[Main Story begins.]
[‘Protagonist’ and ‘Calamity’ begin to act.]
[As a personal attendant, assist the major character, ‘Luciana Speda,’ until she enters the Academy.]
‘The Calamity is beginning to act?’
Yes, that could happen.
It was something I had prepared myself for from the moment I recognized the Main Story.
The problem was what came next.
[If your charge, ‘Luciana Speda,’ dies, the player dies as well.]
[Luciana’s Ruin Progress has been added to the Status Window.]
“This isn’t right....”
***
While one man despaired at the fate given to him, strange changes occurred throughout the world.
“P-Pontiff! Why have you summoned us at this hour?”
Saleranto, the holy land that worshiped Goddess Nepisa.
At the unexpected nighttime summons, the bishops were more bewildered than annoyed.
That was only natural. It had been decades since the Pontiff had made such a public move.
“This old man, shut away in a tiny room, has troubled you all. But the matter is exceedingly urgent.”
Even in the face of the Pontiff’s benevolent smile, the bishops remained uneasy.
They had not earned the office of bishop by winning a game of slap-cards. Faith was, of course, an evaluation factor, but the social skill to read others’ moods also mattered.
Therefore, they could not help but notice the deep shadow cast behind the Pontiff’s smile.
“We must dispatch the faithful.”
“P-Pontiff? What do you mean by that...?”
The bishops looked at the Pontiff in shock.
Do not use faith in service of private greed.
It was a maxim passed down from the First Pontiff, who had feared corruption within the faith.
It was even written in the scriptures.
When the Pontiff, who ought to have been the most devout, spoke words that ran counter to it, the bishops could not help but be even more bewildered.
But the Pontiff made his declaration regardless.
“We must find a woman with golden hair, blue eyes, and the goddess’s mark engraved upon the back of her hand.”
“......”
“......”
“Goddess Nepisa has delivered a prophecy.”
“A prophecy...?”
“Yes. The only one who can stand against the Calamity that will bring ruin to the world has been born. She will become the symbol of our faith, so we must find her at once.”
Saintess.
At that word, uttered aloud by the Pontiff, the bishops once more fell into a cauldron of chaos.
However.
This time, an unusual fervor threaded through it.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, in the territory of demonkind, the Evildun Empire.
“The time has come.”
A change had occurred.
The civil war that had never ceased in the first place had recently grown even more intense. At its center was one demon.
“First comes the unification of Evildun. Then the lands of humans! The great demonkind, united as one, will rule the entire world!”
It was a declaration of boundless arrogance.
But he had the right to make it.
To demonkind, strength was authority. And he stood at its apex.
“True Dragon. Just as expected, those bastards from the other races have rejected our proposal.”
“How foolish. There is no one who can stand against me. Yet they dare to think of resisting.”
The demon called True Dragon sneered.
How could they all be so vulgar and foolish?
The irritating vampires, like flying insects,
the gargoyles that hid in their shells like turtles,
and the other rabble races besides.
Those who worshiped strength did not know their place, yet they dared to make a nuisance of themselves.
“Sweep away those who resist, and leave only those who obey. Install puppet leaders and control their entire races.”
“As True Dragon commands.”
What choice was there? In the way of demonkind, the only option was to crush them with strength and force them into submission.
But.
None of this held any meaning for Hans.
[Luciana’s Ruin Progress has been added to the Status Window.]
[Current Progress: 30%]
Death was just a step away.
The despair at his doorstep was knocking on the door.