Chapter 6: The Demonic Beast Subnock
Deep within the Subnock Plains, a young boy lay collapsed on the ground, slightly removed from the central region where Demon Beast Subnock—the master of this monster-infested realm—reigned supreme.
"Ugh... Ah..." the boy leaked a faint, agonizing breath.
His breathing was weak and raspy.
He was battered and broken from head to toe, covered in wounds. His arms and legs were bent at unnatural angles, fractured beyond doubt at a single glance. Beyond his limbs, several of his ribs were shattered as well, and an agonizing pain pierced his brain so relentlessly that he could no longer tell where in his body the torment was even originating.
(Why... am I...? What on earth...?)
The boy—Third Prince Rodel Iwood—tried to piece together his thoughts through a hazy cloud of fading consciousness.
He could not recall the events that had led him to this point. Had he sustained a monstrously powerful blow? His memories were a disjointed blur; he did not know where he was, nor could he fathom why he was lying broken on the dirt.
"It hurts...!" Rodel gasped out in agony.
The only thing absolutely clear to him was the blinding pain searing through every inch of his flesh.
It was a mystery how he even remained conscious. The sheer agony, misery, and suffering were utterly suffocating.
Passing out would have been a mercy, yet it was as though an unseen entity was inflicting divine retribution upon him, refusing to let Rodel surrender to oblivion.
(That's right... Today was the Monster Hunt Festival. I entered the plains alongside Goura and Tony to hunt monsters...)
"Ngh... Goura! Tony!" Rodel groaned, squeezing the air from his lungs to call out the names of his two sycophants.
He rasped their names over and over, desperate for a response.
"Are you not here?!" Rodel bellowed in frustration. "Hurry up and come here!"
Even though their lord and master was summoning them, neither of his two retainers showed any sign of appearing.
Rodel's face contorted in anger at their insolence, yet he summoned every remaining shred of strength to shout once more.
"It is I who commands you! Show yourselves at once...!" he spat through gritted teeth.
He tried to move his body, but the blinding agony rendered his limbs completely uncooperative.
Even so, he managed to lift his aching neck and scan his surroundings—and a short distance away, he spotted a familiar close-cropped head.
"Goura!" Rodel called out.
It was the back of his follower, Goura Dora, son of Count Dora. There was no mistaking that muscular back and closely shaven head.
Goura was standing beyond a thicket growing in the plains, his back turned to Rodel.
"Goura, what are you doing?!" Rodel demanded. "I am over here!"
「...」
"Hurry and help me! Can you not hear me?!" Rodel shrieked.
「...」
Despite Rodel's desperate shouts, Goura did not twitch in the slightest. Only a few meters separated them. There was no way his voice was failing to reach him.
"Goura... Hey! I said turn around, damn you!" Rodel snapped, unable to contain his frustration.
Losing his patience, Rodel extended a hand and unleashed a spell. The wind bullet, fired while lying flat on the dirt, missed its mark and struck the base of the bushes where Goura was standing.
"Eek...?!" Rodel gasped.
The very next instant, the bushes shook, and Goura toppled backward onto his back.
His body consisted of nothing more than an upper torso—everything below the waist was gone. Seeing his close aide's exposed spine, looking as though it had been melted away by potent acid, bile welled up in Rodel's throat.
"Gou... ra... You have got to be... joking, right...?" Rodel stammered, horror seizing his chest.
Naturally, the halved Goura offered no reply.
Goura was already dead. His severed upper body had merely been propped atop the thicket, making it appear from behind as though he were standing upright.
"That's... right... I... was..." Rodel muttered weakly.
The horrific sight of his close aide's corpse jolted his mind, serving as the catalyst that brought his memories rushing back.
Rodel had pushed deeper and deeper into the plains while hunting monsters, eventually arriving at the off-limits border zone.
Beyond that boundary lay the domain of Subnock, the calamity-class demon beast who ruled as master of the monster territory.
They had been strictly warned during the briefing prior to the Monster Hunt Festival never to cross that threshold.
"Hmph... Absolute nonsense," Rodel had scoffed back then.
No matter how powerful Subnock might be, it was ultimately just a beast. It was merely a single, trivial monster. Rodel had arrogantly concluded in his mind that it was no match for someone blessed with divine talent like himself.
"We are forbidden from entering Subnock's territory... but so long as we don't physically step inside, they can hardly complain, can they?" Rodel had reasoned.
Rodel had commanded his two sycophants to pull out a certain magical item.
It was an item provided by his sponsor, Marquis Eiger, specifically for his participation in the Monster Hunt Festival—a torch imbued with potent monster-attracting magic.
Unlike monster repellents, monster attractants were magical items designed to draw monsters toward them. The smoke emitted by the torch forcefully stimulated the monsters' aggressive instincts, luring them in.
When Goura lit the attractant torch, thick red smoke spewed forth from it.
And then... the shift occurred almost instantly. Heavy, thudding footsteps shook the earth like tremors as a colossal six-legged demon beast emerged from the depths of the plains.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" the beast roared.
Emerging alongside an ear-splitting shriek was a black lion so vast that one had to crane their neck upward just to see it.
It possessed six legs, and its head—featuring a gaping, split maw—was studded with multiple glowing red eyes. The saliva dripping from its mouth onto the ground reeked atrociously; wherever the fluids splashed, vegetation withered and rotted, spreading death with every drop.
Subnock, the Corrosive Evil Lion. The master of this monster realm, who claimed the plains as its hunting grounds, had finally appeared.
(What is this...?!) At the sudden emergence of this monster fit to be called a king among beasts, even Rodel had frozen in sheer terror.
Yet he had quickly remembered his objective and began gathering his mana.
(Alright, we kill it! I'll slay that beast and show everyone that I am the true ruler!)
This was a calamity-class demon beast that generations of monarchs, including the previous king, had failed to eradicate and were forced to leave untouched.
By vanquishing it, Rodel Iwood would prove to the entire realm that he was destined to be the next king and a legendary hero of history.
Rodel had rallied his two aides and valiantly charged the giant demon beast... That was as far as his memory went.
When he next regained awareness, he was lying collapsed on the dirt with fractures all over his body.
One of his aides was dead. The other was nowhere in sight, his status completely unknown.
"Why...? How... how did this happen?!" Rodel wailed.
For perhaps the very first time in his life, Rodel felt genuine, heartfelt regret over his own actions.
"I am... the chosen one... Yes, I must be...! Grandmother said so herself, did she not?!" Rodel babbled desperately.
His grandmother, the Queen Dowager, had told him so repeatedly.
She had assured him that he was a hero, a chosen individual capable of shaping history itself.
He had lived his entire life placing unshakeable faith in those words... Was this pathetic end truly the fate of a man beloved by the heavens?
The Queen Dowager had never once been wrong.
She was always correct. That was precisely why she commanded such a vast following of loyal supporters.
"Could it be... that I was wrong...?" Rodel muttered, his voice trembling.
Had he been mistaken all along?
Was he not a chosen entity, but merely part of the worthless, nameless masses?
If so... what had his entire life been for?
What of all the atrocities he had committed under the belief that he was special and above consequence? What of all the people he had trampled underfoot?
"What... am I...?" Rodel choked out.
"Oh, praise the heavens! You are indeed alive, Prince Rodel," a familiar voice called out.
「...」
"I have searched high and low for you, my lord," the speaker continued.
Hearing a voice he recognized, Rodel turned his head to locate the speaker. Looking down at him with a serene expression was an elderly gentleman—Marquis Eiger.
"I have come to retrieve you," Marquis Eiger said in a mild tone. "Allow me to carry you away so we may vacate these plains at once."
As he spoke softly, Marquis Eiger cast healing magic upon Rodel.
While complete recovery was impossible in the field, it served adequately as emergency first aid.
Once the healing spell concluded, Marquis Eiger hoisted Rodel onto his back and began striding across the plains.
"W-Wait! Hold on!" Rodel shouted in panic.
He cried out frantically, gesturing behind them.
"Goura's corpse is right over there... and Tony is still missing! I cannot simply abandon them and flee by myself...!" Rodel pleaded.
"Ah... You mean Goura Dora, son of Count Dora?" Marquis Eiger mused softly.
Marquis Eiger glanced toward Goura's severed upper body lying a short distance away.
"To be permitted to lay down one's life in accordance with Your Highness's commands... How truly enviable," Marquis Eiger murmured serenely. "I have no doubt he died feeling thoroughly blessed."
"Blessed...?! That gruesome death...?" Rodel gasped in disbelief.
"Indeed! He was able to offer up his life for Your Highness, who is recognized by Her Majesty the Queen Dowager herself! What greater happiness could any subject possibly ask for?!" Marquis Eiger declared fervently, his breathing growing harsh.
He made the assertion with wild enthusiasm, puffing his chest.
"Tony Boyle, son of Viscount Boyle, was also serving as monster fodder over there... but surely that was his utmost desire as well," Marquis Eiger added smoothly. "It is nothing for Your Highness to concern yourself with. You need only focus on living as a sovereign ruler, doing whatever pleases you... For that is Her Majesty the Queen Dowager's wish."
「...」
Carried upon his back, Rodel could not see Marquis Eiger's face.
Yet even without seeing it, he could easily tell from the man's tone that his expression was dripping with unhinged ecstasy and madness.
(What... What is this man talking about...?)
In that moment, Rodel realized for the very first time just how abnormal the people worshipping him truly were.
Those who invoked the name of his grandmother, the Queen Dowager, were unmistakably deranged, as if they had completely surrendered their sanity.
(Can I really... keep going like this? Can I truly trust this man, or believe in Grandmother's words any longer...?)
As he was carried away by Marquis Eiger, Rodel questioned himself over and over.
Rodel had finally come to realize his own sheer folly... though perhaps he might have been happier remaining utterly blind to it.
Demon Beast Subnock had abandoned the deep interior of the plains and was charging directly toward the entrance.
Driven wild by Subnock's advance, the other monsters were stampeding in total panic.
"What... What have I done...?" Rodel groaned painfully, crushed by a wave of guilt unlike anything he had ever known.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, returning to the present moment...
Having parted ways with Yugroot, Rest was sniping monsters across the plains with spellcraft to exterminate the threat.
"Stone Bullet!" Rest chanted.
A sharp projectile of stone blasted forward with terrifying velocity, impaling a monster several hundred meters away.
Normally, this lower-tier spell possessed nowhere near such destructive force or range.
However, Rest had used Compression magic to harden the created stone, reshaping it into an elongated, streamlined cone. Firing it off with Accelerator magic allowed him to draw out power and distance far exceeding its original limits.
On top of that, he integrated hyper-precise targeting via Life Search. Activating four spells simultaneously through Quartet-Cast was an advanced technique that few even among the Court Mages could execute.
(I don't need to worry about running out of mana. I just have to be careful not to accidentally hit fleeing students and keep firing non-stop!)
Tracking the positions of humans and monsters alike, he fired, fired, fired, and fired...!
By picking off monsters while steering clear of humans, he thinned out the horde surging from the depths of the plains.
"Alright... That takes care of the first wave," Rest muttered, exhaling softly.
Having eliminated a massive number of monsters, he took a moment to catch his breath.
He had slain every dangerous monster within range of his magic, saving every student he could reach.
A sense of accomplishment washed over him alongside fatigue. Though his mana remained entirely undiminished, the delicate mental precision required had drained his focus, leaving his brain clamoring for rest.
Rest pulled out a honey candy he carried as emergency rations, popped it into his mouth, and replenished his brain with sugar.
(The cause of the stampede is still unknown... but a second wave is bound to hit soon. What on earth drove these monsters out of their territory in the first place?)
Monsters dwelling in the depths of the plains breaking out like this was an unthinkable anomaly. Something extraordinary must have happened.
(If I expand my search radius further... maybe I can catch the presence of whatever caused this...?)
Deciding it was worth a shot, Rest resolved to try.
Normally, Rest could sense presences up to a one-kilometer radius centered around himself.
With infinite mana, he could theoretically expand his perception indefinitely... but if too much information flooded in at once, his brain would overload and crash.
(If I push my perception right up to the processing limit of my brain, maybe...)
"Wh...?!" Rest gasped.
However, before he could even widen the scope of Life Search, the cause of the anomaly forced itself upon his understanding.
It was simple. The entity responsible for driving the stampede leaped straight into his line of sight.
"It's huge... What on earth is that monster?!" Rest muttered in shock.
Far off on the horizon sat a gigantic silhouette... At first, he thought it was a mountain peak.
But it wasn't. It was unquestionably moving, steadily advancing in his direction.
The moment he confirmed its form, an overwhelming presence and crushing pressure washed over him.
"Could that be... Subnock, the master of the monster realm?!" Rest realized.
The truth hit him like a physical blow.
In monster-infested territories known as magic domains, an ancient "master" that had accumulated immense power over decades typically reigned.
The master of these plains was Subnock—a giant beast that had wiped out pioneer bands time and again, ruling like a king over the den of beasts.
(I see... That makes sense now! The reason monsters came rushing out in droves was because that creature began moving!)
A domain master rarely stirred from the heart of its territory... but someone must have provoked it and lured it outside.
Driven out by Subnock's movement, the monsters dwelling near the plains' center had fled toward the perimeter.
(This is bad. Extremely bad...! If a monster like that breaks out into the open, there's no telling how catastrophic the casualties will be...!)
At this rate, Subnock promised to barrel straight past the boundaries of the plains.
The event headquarters tents were set up at the plains' entrance. Viola, Primula, and his other friends were all there.
Faculty members, the Knight Commander, and the Director General of Court Mages were present as well... yet it was doubtful whether even they could stop a monster of this magnitude.
(There's no way in hell I'm letting a monster like this anywhere near Viola and Primula...!)
He knew it was reckless, but he had no choice.
Allowing the people he could finally call his family to be put in danger was completely out of the question.
Fear gnawed at him. His opponent was undeniably an overwhelmingly superior foe unlike any he had ever fought before.
Even so... the terror of losing someone precious to him far outweighed any fear of combat.
"...Let's do this," Rest muttered, hardening his resolve.
He steeled his heart.
Aware of the mortal danger, he kicked off the ground and dashed toward the depths of the plains to intercept the master of the domain—the demon beast named Subnock.
After sprinting for ten minutes under physical enhancement magic, the gigantic beast at the heart of the crisis finally came into clear view of his naked eye.
Subnock, the Corrosive Evil Lion.
A towering frame comparable to a blue whale, it was a monstrous lion boasting six legs and multiple eyes. Its jet-black fur stood on end like dark flames. Rotting saliva dripped incessantly from its maw, casting a pungent, nauseating stench that assailed his nose even from a considerable distance.
The master of these plains was a calamity-class demon beast that numerous rulers, including the previous king, had attempted to eradicate only to suffer utter defeat.
"Looking closely, there are other monsters around it... Are those its minions?" Rest observed quietly.
Subnock was not the sole threat to watch out for. Other beasts of similar species milled about its vicinity.
Whether offspring or subordinates, elephant-sized Corrosive Beasts were approaching while spreading their foul odor.
Subnock alone was troublesome enough, but with minion monsters in tow, countless lives were bound to be lost. And among them might be those Rest held most dear.
"...I won't let you," Rest growled. "I'll put a stop to you right here."
No matter how reckless or foolhardy it seemed, there came a time when a man simply had to stand his ground. Rest was certain that moment was now.
(I won't let this thing reach the entrance where Viola and Primula are. I'll defeat it... or at the very least, drive it back...!)
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Subnock roared.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the surrounding Corrosive Beasts howled in unison.
As Subnock roared, the surrounding Corrosive Beasts raised their voices in response.
Unleashing spine-chilling shrieks, they charged straight toward him.
"Hoshihami!" Rest bellowed, casting his original spell.
A dark sphere that reflected no light materialized in his hand.
It was a pitch-black orb—the Dark Star, capable of consuming everything in its path and reducing it to nothingness.
The instant he cast it, he felt a massive quantity of mana being sucked away.
「...」
It required a volume of mana so immense that anyone without Rest's infinite reservoir would have been drained completely dry in a single second.
"...As usual, it's an unrefined, hideous spell," Rest muttered with a dry smile.
Creating a spell unusable by anyone lacking infinite mana was hardly something to be praised for. But... it was necessary to defeat this foe.
"Sorry, but... I don't plan on holding back for a second. I hold no personal grudge, but fade away!" Rest shouted.
The beast itself was not at fault; it had merely been living in its domain. Someone had poked its nest, startling it into wandering outside.
Even so... he would slay it. He would exterminate it without a shred of mercy. To protect those precious to him, he would wipe it out out of pure self-interest.
"Spin, O star! Dark Star that consumes even light!" Rest declared.
The Dark Star was roughly one meter in radius.
The maximum distance he could hold it away from his body was an arm's length; any further, and the supply of mana would sever, causing it to vanish.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" a Corrosive Beast shrieked.
Spotting Rest, several Corrosive Beasts under Subnock's command broke away from the pack and lunged forward.
They possessed black fur similar to Subnock's, six legs, compound eyes, and rotting saliva dripping from their jaws.
Though about the size of an elephant and intimidating in their own right, they were almost cute compared to their boss.
"Here I go...!" Rest yelled, brandishing the Dark Star.
He swung the Dark Star directly toward the charging Corrosive Beasts.
A beast attempting to bite him was drawn into the Dark Star, its physical flesh erased into nothingness.
Corrosive Beasts were formidable monsters. Their corrosive saliva melted swords and armor, and if ingested, it rotted cellular tissue from within to bring about instant death.
Furthermore, their black hides boasted exceptional resistance to both physical strikes and magical assaults. They were opponents that neither Royal Guards nor Court Mages could easily dispatch.
"Devour them, Dark Star!" Rest shouted.
One, two, three... Rest obliterated the mighty monsters one after another.
No matter how resilient their hides were, touching the Dark Star meant instant erasure. Raw strength was meaningless before it.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Whoa...!" Rest gasped.
A Corrosive Beast squirted corrosive saliva like a high-pressure water jet.
Rest held up the Dark Star like a shield, blocking the oncoming stream of toxic fluids.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the other Corrosive Beasts shrieked together.
"O-Oho?!" Rest stammered in surprise.
The remaining Corrosive Beasts joined in, launching streams of acid saliva from a distance.
They maintained a set distance from Rest, staying well outside the Dark Star's reach.
"Don't tell me... they learned the nature of Hoshihami?!" Rest exclaimed in astonishment.
As he intercepted the saliva streams using the Dark Star, Rest widened his eyes in disbelief.
Merely observing a few of their pack members get erased was enough for them to deduce that touching the orb meant instant death.
(They judged close combat to be dangerous and switched to ranged attacks...! These things actually possess tactical intelligence!)
The monsters possessed surprisingly high learning ability. If they had brainlessly charged in like suicidal lemmings, he could have handled them easily.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Subnock bellowed.
"Ngh...!" Rest winced.
The roar shook the very air.
Like dynamite detonating at point-blank range, the sonic shockwave ruptured his eardrums, causing all surrounding sounds to fade away into silence.
"Kh...!" Rest gritted his teeth.
Capitalizing on Rest's moment of faltering, Subnock—the culprit behind the deafening scream—lashed out with a tongue as thick as a massive tree trunk.
It slammed down with an explosive crash, churning up pulverized earth into a curtain of dust.
"That was close...!" Rest gasped.
Executing High Accelerator, he instinctively dodged Subnock's heavy tongue attack.
Had he been a split second slower, that monstrous tongue would have crushed him flat.
(That's not an attack a magic barrier can block. The Dark Star could swallow it, but the sheer size and momentum would kill me before it absorbs it completely...!)
"Heal!" Rest incanted rapidly.
He restored his eardrums, which had been ruptured by the beast's roar.
The sounds of the battlefield returned to normal, and the sharp pain in his ears vanished.
"Alright... Though seriously, this thing is trouble," Rest muttered, sweating slightly.
A single roar had ruptured his eardrums; for a second he thought he might lose consciousness.
As expected of the master of a magic domain. He had never assumed it would be easy to slay, but it was several times stronger than he had anticipated.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Several Corrosive Beasts fired off high-pressure jets of acid saliva at Rest.
He blocked the acidic stream with an Earth Wall. While the barrier dissolved under the acid, he immediately counterattacked with magic.
"Thunderbolt!" Rest bellowed.
"GYAO!" a beast shrieked in pain.
The lightning offensive spell detonated in a blinding burst.
The violent electrical strike swept several Corrosive Beasts off their feet, but they pushed themselves back up immediately and growled aggressively.
"Damn it... Standard attack spells can't even knock them unconscious...!" Rest cursed.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Tch...!" Rest clicked his tongue.
The Corrosive Beasts unleashed their tongues and acid jets simultaneously.
Using High Accelerator, Rest dodged the assault, dove right into an enemy's inner guard, and unleashed Hoshihami at point-blank range.
The Corrosive Beast was swallowed by the Dark Star, disappearing without a single strand of fur left behind.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the rest roared in fury.
However, attacks rained down upon him from all directions immediately afterward.
The Corrosive Beasts avoided clumping together, scattering to maintain distance while peppering him with ranged strikes.
If they had grouped up, he could have wiped them out all at once, but their dispersion denied him that option.
"...They're guarding against close quarters. They intend to strip away all my escape routes!" Rest muttered, gritting his teeth in frustration.
His face twisted as he clenched his jaw.
He blocked a jet of acid with the Dark Star, but an attack incoming from another angle grazed his arm.
"Gaaaah...!" Rest screamed in agonizing pain.
The corrosive saliva had entered his flesh. If left unchecked, the toxic fluid would travel through his bloodstream to his heart and brain, dissolving his very life away.
"Damn it...!" Rest gasped.
Instinctively, Rest summoned a blade of wind and severed his own arm on the spot.
Had he hesitated for even a single second longer, it might have been too late.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!" Rest let out a silent, agonizing shriek.
Immediately after, a wave of horrific agony crashed over him.
It hurt. It hurt beyond comprehension.
He learned for the first time that when a human experienced true, peak agony, they could not even squeeze out a sound.
(Heal... Heal! Mend, damn it, mend!!!)
"Nghooooooooo...!" Rest groaned through shattered breath.
As his healing magic activated, the unbearable torment gradually began to subside.
Evading the relentless barrage of incoming enemy strikes, Rest desperately concentrated on his treatment.
"I didn't know what I'd do if that didn't work... I was legitimately panicking," Rest wheezed, breathing hard.
Astonishingly, his severed arm regrew before his eyes.
Regenerating lost limbs was considered a secret, apex art within healing magic. Yet Rest had already mastered it.
Why? Because closing wounds and regenerating missing parts were both fundamentally achieved through Heal.
As he had learned during academy lectures, the sole hurdle in restoring lost body parts was mana consumption; simply pumping a massive volume of mana into Heal fulfilled the requirements.
(It would have been impossible without infinite mana... If I end up failing to become a Court Mage, maybe I should make a living as a priest or healer instead?)
While he pondered with half-hearted humor, his severed arm completed its full regeneration.
He gave his restored hand a light flex to inspect it; there was no stiffness or discomfort whatsoever.
The excruciating pain tormenting his brain had passed, but his precarious situation remained unchanged.
The subordinate Corrosive Beasts were preventing him from focusing on Subnock. There were over twenty of them left.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Subnock bellowed once more.
"Whoa...!" Rest cried out.
On top of that, Subnock seized the opportunity to blast him with another deafening roar.
Drawing on his earlier experience, Rest erected an atmospheric barrier using Wind Wall to intercept the sonic cannon.
This time, he endured the blow without his eardrums bursting.
"Smoke Screen! Amplification! Wind Control!" Rest shouted.
He invoked a Trio-Cast. Spreading a massive volume of white smoke screen, he used Wind Control to prevent it from being easily blown away by ambient gusts. Though his vision was completely obscured, he layered another spell—Life Search—to pinpoint the positions of all enemies.
"Accelerator!" Rest called out.
"GYA..." a beast choked out.
Closing the distance, he executed Hoshihami to whittle down their numbers.
He sought to cull the horde under the cover of smoke without letting them discover his position.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Subnock thundered.
"Figures it would end up like this...!" Rest cursed softly.
As he had half-expected, Subnock's roar blasted away the smoke screen.
The sonic shockwave dissipated the thick haze completely.
Even with Wind Control maintaining the smoke, the brute-force cannon of sound mercilessly tore it to shreds.
"No matter what tactic I throw at it, it counters everything... What a monster," Rest muttered under his breath.
Every spell Rest unleashed was systematically broken down.
Its colossal size and corrosive spit were hazardous enough, but its tactical intelligence made it exponentially more troublesome.
(Humans are supposed to beat beasts through wisdom and teamwork... Isn't it cheating if monsters outsmart us in intellect and coordination?!)
He was fighting a lone battle. Had he been cooperating with trusted companions, it might have been easier, but there was no one around to cover his back.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Woah... No joke, I might actually die here..." Rest muttered, his smile strained.
Aware that the tide of battle was steadily worsening, Rest racked his brain for a way out.
He attempted to formulate a plan to break the deadlock... but of course, the enemies had no intention of granting him time to think.
They unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks toward Rest without a moment's pause.
"Almakain Sword Dance Technique... 'Fragment'!" a clear voice echoed through the field.
「...」
At that moment, an unexpected turn of events took place.
A shadow cut through the air and sliced one of the Corrosive Beasts cleanly in half.
"Well, well, quite a fine crowd gathered here, all worth slicing up," a cool voice remarked.
He possessed refined features marred by a gloomy expression, his eyes concealed behind long bangs that rendered his thoughts unreadable. The sword held in his right hand radiated a dull, sinister luminescence.
"Wilhelm Ryubass...?" Rest muttered in disbelief.
Standing before him was the top first-year student of the Knight Course—the young man Rest privately dubbed the "Misogynistic Sword Saint."
Faced with such an entirely unexpected savior, Rest froze in surprise.
"Ryubass... What on earth are you doing here?!" Rest blurted out.
"GYAO!"
Seizing the opening created by their conversation, one of the corrosive beasts lunged forward.
"Ngh...!"
Rest reflexively prepared to intercept the attacking monster with a counter spell.
Yet Wilhelm moved even faster than Rest's magic could manifest.
"Almacain Sword Dance... Sanga," Wilhelm whispered calmly.
A flurry of bladed slashes flashed forth in a fraction of a second.
Midair, the corrosive beast was sliced into pieces, its remains raining down onto the soil below.
"So fast...!" Rest gasped.
Wilhelm's movement was extraordinarily swift, rivaling even Rest when boosted by [High Accelerator].
To make matters more impressive, he had cleaved effortlessly through the monster's hide, despite its incredibly dense pelt.
(And that blade of his... it looks just like a Japanese katana. Is it a weapon specialized strictly for slashes?)
"You were... Rest, wasn't it? A friend of that woman," Wilhelm said, turning his cold gaze toward him.
By "that woman," he undoubtedly meant Yuri Catleia—the classmate who persistently pestered Wilhelm during every swordsmanship lesson.
"Well, yeah... Yuri is my friend," Rest replied cautiously.
"Why are you here? This isn't a battlefield meant for first-years," Wilhelm remarked, narrowing his eyes.
"I could say the exact same thing to you..." Rest retorted, raising an eyebrow.
After all, Wilhelm was a first-year student himself.
Rest couldn't help but wonder why on earth he had wandered out onto the front lines.
"If you're just going to stand there idly, you ought to retreat. I shall handle this area," Wilhelm asserted flatly.
"There's no way I'm leaving such a critical battle to someone I've barely spoken to before. I appreciate the rescue, but... shouldn't you be the one retreating?" Rest shot back.
Rest countered Wilhelm's arrogance without hesitation.
Technically, Wilhelm had stepped in to help, but even without his intervention, Rest could have easily blocked the attack with magic.
Wilhelm was a pure swordsman. He was at a distinct disadvantage against corrosive beasts capable of melting weapons, so Rest offered his warning in complete earnestness, without a hint of malice.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
As they exchanged words, several corrosive beasts spat high-pressure jets of acidic saliva directly at them.
"[Hoshihami]!" Rest shouted.
"Zanten!" Wilhelm barked simultaneously.
Rest conjured his black orb, swallowing the incoming acid into nonexistence.
At the very same instant, Wilhelm slashed his katana, severing the liquid jet cleanly down the middle so that the split streams splashed harmlessly off to either side.
"He sliced through liquid...?" Rest murmured, astonished.
Despite contacting acidic saliva that could dissolve metal in seconds, Wilhelm's blade showed no sign of snapping or melting. He had coated his weapon in a layer of highly concentrated mana to reinforce its structure. It was a common technique among knights and warriors, yet Wilhelm's execution was far more refined than Danila's or any other Knight Course student's.
"You erased the enemy's attack...? You cast quite peculiar magic," Wilhelm remarked, knitting his brows.
For his part, Wilhelm was also frowning in mystification.
He wore a dubious expression, clearly perplexed by the unfamiliar spell Rest had just deployed.
"Well, we hardly have the luxury to chat calmly right now..." Rest muttered dryly.
Deciding to quiet down the horde first, Rest unleashed a wide-area spell.
"[Thunderstorm]!" Rest yelled.
Lightning rained down like torrential water, striking the gathered beasts.
It was an advanced wide-area spell—broad in coverage, but lacking raw lethal power. Against corrosive beasts with high magic resistance, it served as little more than a deterrent.
"Splendidly done," Wilhelm noted approvingly.
With a powerful kick off the turf, Wilhelm sprinted forward.
Exploiting the opening created by the lightning storm, he closed the distance instantly and began butchering the monsters one after another.
"Magic truly is convenient. That was fine support," Wilhelm acknowledged.
"I wasn't explicitly trying to cover for you, though..." Rest grumbled back.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
One of the monsters attempted to ambush Wilhelm from his flank.
From a distance, Rest launched a spell, crushing the threat before the beast could strike.
"Almacain Sword Dance... Danshou," Wilhelm declared, slicing through another pair of beasts.
He carved through the remaining monsters with cold, methodical perfection.
Wilhelm's blade was astonishingly fast and immensely powerful.
It was a pinnacle of swordsmanship—an ideal mastery that ordinary mortals could never hope to reach.
(A genuine genius swordsman... Are you the protagonist of some story or what?)
Rest cast spells from afar while Wilhelm swung his sword in tandem.
Though it was an entirely unexpected partnership, fighting alongside him proved drastically easier than going solo.
Rest had never realized just how much smoother combat became when receiving reliable backup.
(I had no idea back-and-forth teamwork was this effective... I might need to re-evaluate a few things.)
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
As Rest and Wilhelm were preoccupied with the lesser beasts, Sabnock lumbered away across the plain, looking entirely disinterested in their presence.
Ignoring the duo completely, the giant creature headed straight toward the entrance of the plains.
If it were returning to the depths of the Demon Realm, that would have been fine, but Sabnock was moving in the exact opposite direction.
"Damn it... I'm not letting you get away!" Rest shouted in panic.
"Hey, wait, you...!" Wilhelm called out, surprised.
"I'm leaving this spot to you! Handle the remaining minion beasts!" Rest yelled back over his shoulder.
The corrosive beasts had already been reduced to less than half their original numbers.
Wilhelm alone would easily be able to handle the rest.
"I'm counting on you—I'm going to stop that big beast!" Rest called out.
Activating [Hyper Accelerator], Rest kicked off the earth and burst into a sprint at extreme speed.
He felt somewhat guilty leaving Wilhelm behind, but there was simply no other choice.
Leaving the remaining mobs to a guy who was neither his party member nor his friend, Rest took off after Sabnock.
◇ ◇ ◇
The Master of the Demon Realm—Sabnock, the Evil Corrosive Lion—strode forward composedly.
Swaying its pitch-black fur and staring ahead with compound eyes, it had completely disregarded Rest and Wilhelm who stood in its path, advancing straight toward its goal.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Sabnock had been destined from birth to be a king.
Its birthplace was the very heart of the territory known as the Demon Realm.
Its parents, a pair of corrosive beasts, had triumphed in the struggle for survival against their kin and other monsters, securing that sacred ground as their breeding den.
Five lion cubs were born, bathed in the rich mana bubbling up from beneath the earth. Immediately upon birth, they engaged in cannibalistic slaughter, until only the one destined to become king—Sabnock—remained standing.
"Throughout heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one."
If Sabnock possessed the ability to speak human language, it undoubtedly would have uttered such words.
Born drenched in vast mana and further empowered by devouring its siblings, the cub grew with alarming speed, ultimately slaughtering and consuming its own parents before leaving the nest.
From that moment on, its existence was an endless sequence of battles.
Day after day, it fought, slaughtered, and devoured any monster seeking to claim the magical energy of the Demon Realm.
Before long, the young lion had grown to a size far dwarfing any of its species, surrounding itself with minions who revered it as their absolute king.
Having established an unshakeable position as the ruler of the Demon Realm, Sabnock's next opponents were the creatures known as "humans."
The Demon Realm possessed fertile soil, making it a coveted prize for humans. To reclaim the territory, numerous leaders had dispatched armies in attempts to slay the "King."
Leading its legion of corrosive beasts, Sabnock crushed those foolish, impudent humans into dust.
"I am king. To despoil the land of the king is an act of utter disrespect."
Sabnock did not attack humans to feed, but out of the pride of a sovereign. Allowing humans to trespass upon its domain would tarnish its dignity as ruler.
Precisely because it was king, any human intruding upon its territory had to die.
They had to be ruthlessly crushed, trampled, and ground into powder to teach the fools their proper place.
Sabnock's reasoning was absolute—or at least, so the beast believed.
Having annihilated the settlement forces, no human dared set foot in the inner sanctuary of the Demon Realm for many years, ushering in an era of tranquility.
"Alright, let's go! A bear like this isn't enough—I'm bringing down a bigger prize!"
Yet... humans were creatures that easily forgot fear.
On that day, for the first time in twenty years, humans approached the corrosive beasts' domain. It was not an army, but merely a handful of human children.
Sabnock could have ignored them. The ruler had no interest in chasing down stray insects.
However, of all things, those little insects released an utterly revolting stench.
It was a scent designed to stir up monsters' combative instincts—the foul odor humans called Monster Lure incense.
Did they intend to bait and trap the beasts...? It was an offensive insult beyond endurance.
Only mindless, inferior monsters would lose their sanity to such lure incenses.
To lump Sabnock, the supreme ruler, together with such vulgar beasts was an unforgivable blasphemy.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Sabnock swatted away the foolish humans in a single blow.
It did not bother checking whether they lived or died; there was far more pressing business at hand.
They had committed such a foolish act because humanity had apparently forgotten the terror of the King.
Just as it had twenty years ago, it would slaughter, crush, and trample them, reminding humans of a force far beyond their meager comprehension.
Leading its young subordinates, the King marched out of its territory, heading straight toward the human settlements.
To teach them their place, Sabnock resolved to level the human nest where the weaklings gathered.
After leaving its domain, two minor insects had appeared before the King and launched an attack.
Since they were capable enough to slay a few minions, Sabnock toyed with them briefly, but eventually realized it was a waste of time and decided to ignore them and move on.
"No matter how strong an insect may be, it remains an insect. It can never slay a lion."
Sabnock was king. Even if insects clung to its feet or weak minions were slain, it had no reason to halt. A king did not follow a path; the path came into being wherever the king walked, becoming the royal road.
Sabnock charged forward.
To demonstrate its sovereign trail and uphold its pride, it sought to eradicate humanity.
"[Hoshihami]!"
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH?!"
Yet... Sabnock was forced to stop dead in its tracks.
For the very first time since its birth, it shrieked in agonizing pain.
It realized the source of the agony immediately—the insect it had shaken off had somehow leaped onto its back!
"[Hoshihami]!"
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!"
Once again, alongside those chilling words, an excruciating pain ripped through its hide.
The black orb held in the small insect's hand gouged away a chunk of flesh from the back of Sabnock, the sovereign Master of the Demon Realm.
◇ ◇ ◇
After slamming his attack into Sabnock's back, Rest bounced off its tough fur and landed firmly on the ground.
"Too shallow...!" Rest cursed under his breath.
Having caught up to Sabnock using [Hyper Accelerator], Rest had leaped onto its back and struck with [Hoshihami]. Although his black orb could devour and eradicate anything it touched, against Sabnock's colossal body, it was unfortunately far from a fatal blow.
Though blood oozed from its back, Sabnock remained standing firmly in front of him, far from defeated.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!"
Still, it had clearly felt severe pain.
Sabnock halted its advance and spun around to face Rest directly.
Its eerie, distorted compound eyes looked down upon Rest, projecting raw fury and lethal malice.
"Finally looking my way, are you...!" Rest panted, grimacing.
Rest swallowed hard from the intense tension, but put on a bold front, glaring back at Sabnock with unyielding eyes.
Exchanging glances like this, he was reminded once more of what a terrifying monster he was facing.
Aside from its sheer size, the sheer quantity of mana contained within its body was astronomical.
Even Rest, who possessed a spring of infinite mana, could not hold such a monstrous volume within his body all at once.
(No wonder it's the Master of the region... There's a good reason why no one has managed to slay it since the founding of the kingdom.)
Feeling sweat trickle down his spine, Rest racked his brain for a way to defeat the creature standing before him.
The most powerful move in his arsenal was [Hoshihami], the black orb that devoured all creation.
Yet, as demonstrated by his recent attack, even [Hoshihami] couldn't deal a decisive mortal blow to Sabnock with merely one or two hits.
(It would be a different story if I hit its brain or heart... but that's easier said than done.)
During his previous attack, he had actually intended to smash the black orb straight into its skull.
However, Sabnock's rapid movements across the plain had made it impossible for Rest to maintain a stable footing after landing on its back.
He had barely managed to score a hit on its back; targeting its head accurately was near impossible under these conditions.
([Hoshihami] is an insanely powerful spell. And because of that, it can't be cast simultaneously with other magic...)
That was [Hoshihami]'s major weakness. Due to its requirement of enormous mana control, it could not be overlaid with other spells. While manifesting the dark orb, physical enhancement spells were canceled out, reverting Rest to an unaugmented physical state.
(If I could pump ten or twenty hits into it, it would die... but is that even realistic?)
Could Rest truly hold out long enough against this gigantic beast to achieve that?
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"
"Ngh...!"
From its fully opened jaws, a deafening screech far louder than before exploded outward.
It was a shockwave missile of pure sound. Had Rest not shielded himself with magic, his eardrums would have ruptured and he would have been blown back dozens of meters.
"GYAO!"
"......"
Immediately following the roar, Sabnock brought its giant foreleg slamming down.
For a split second, Rest considered countering with [Hoshihami] to consume the limb, but quickly discarded the reckless idea.
He couldn't possibly swallow Sabnock's massive leg in a single instant.
Even if he gouged out a piece of flesh, Rest's unaugmented body would be crushed flat under the weight of the blow.
"[Hyper Accelerator]!" Rest shouted.
Boosting his speed to the maximum, he dodged Sabnock's descending foreleg.
A booming explosion echoed a split second later, sending a massive plume of dust billowing into the air.
Where the foreleg had struck, a miniature crater had formed, deep claw marks gouged violently into the earth.
"[Fireball]! [Amplification]! [Compression]! [Accelerator]!" Rest chanted rapidly.
Evading the foreleg slam, he cast a quartet combo of spells.
A massive fireball was compressed into a dense point, accelerated, and launched forward.
The flying sphere struck Sabnock squarely in the face, triggering a blazing crimson explosion.
"GYAO!"
"Mgh...!" Rest grimaced.
Yet the damage remained superficial. The fur on its face was merely singed a bit.
Even with a quartet combination, standard elemental magic could not inflict major damage on such a hide.
Sabnock countered by shooting high-pressure torrents of corrosive saliva. The lesser beasts had used the same attack, but Sabnock's version operated on an entirely different scale.
A massive deluge of saliva gushed forth like a collapsing dam.
"[Wind Wall]! [Water Wall]! [Earth Wall]! [Fire Wall]!" Rest yelled, casting a defensive quartet.
Constructing four elemental barriers around himself, he successfully shielded against the pouring deluge of acidic liquid.
While Sabnock's saliva splashed wildly across the surrounding area, Rest alone managed to emerge unscathed.
"Gishaaaaaaaaa..."
A stray monster standing nearby was accidentally drenched in the spray. Its flesh liquefied instantly, rotting away until nothing remained but bare bones.
"...What a terrifying technique. You damn monster," Rest muttered, his face turning pale.
He could not possibly allow such a monster to escape these plains. If it were to reach the Royal Capital... A chill ran down Rest's spine, contorting his features in grim anxiety.
In his mind's eye, visions of towns melted into sludge and citizens reduced to skeletal remains flashed vividly.
"...I will stop you for sure. Now the real desperate struggle begins," Rest declared, hardening his resolve.
Bracing himself for a fight to the death, Rest devoted every ounce of his intellect to formulating a method to hunt down the monster before him.
(Its fur has insanely high magic resistance. Fire, water, wind, earth, ice, lightning... none of them will work. Poison... I haven't tested it, but with a body this huge, it would take far too long to spread.)
Yet landing [Hoshihami] in close combat was equally daunting.
A surprise attack was one thing, but hitting a vital spot while the enemy was on high alert was nearly impossible.
"In that case... I have to try it. It's a reckless idea, but I have no choice," Rest muttered to himself.
A single strategy had coalesced in his mind.
It was a tedious, absurdly demanding method—one that would be utterly impossible without an infinite pool of mana.
"No matter how crazy it is, if there's no other way, I've got to do it," Rest affirmed firmly.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Buffeted by Sabnock's deafening roar, Rest sprang into motion.
Once again, high-pressure acid sprayed out like a water laser, but Rest evaded it with [Hyper Accelerator]. Kicking hard off the turf, he leaped high into the air.
"[Hiding]! [Floating]! [Wind Control]!" Rest called out in a trio invocation.
It was a trio combo spell manifestation.
Concealing his body with optical illusion magic, Rest kicked off the empty sky and ascended into flight.
(I guess sneaking in close for a direct strike... isn't going to be allowed.)
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Having lost sight of Rest, Sabnock thrashed and attacked the surrounding area at random.
It had evidently realized that Rest had hidden himself using magic.
Approaching carelessly risked taking a lucky hit from its wild sweeps.
(Which means... yeah, this is really my only option.)
"[Wind Control]," Rest commanded softly.
Soaring over Sabnock's head, Rest floated higher and higher into the sky.
He climbed altitude rapidly—past the height of towers, past the height of mountains, up into the clouds.
The air thinned, making breathing difficult. The temperature plunged as well, biting cold pricking at his bare skin.
After roughly three minutes of ascent, he reached an altitude of approximately four thousand meters above sea level.
It was lower than the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner, yet high enough to look down upon Mount Fuji. Looking down, he could barely discern Sabnock's massive silhouette far below.
"...This height should suffice," Rest murmured.
He halted his ascent and hovered in midair.
Far below, Sabnock was rampaging in search of him, but from this distance, its attacks could never reach him.
Staring down at Sabnock, Rest spoke aloud to review the plan he was about to execute.
"...Sabnock has extraordinarily tough fur; advanced magic and quartet combos barely leave a scratch. [Hoshihami] can gouge its flesh, but its range is extremely limited. Approaching a giant, rampaging monster to hit a precise vital spot is impossible for me right now."
So... what was the answer?
The conclusion was simple: launch an attack from long range with power equal to or exceeding [Hoshihami].
(I'm fortunate... I just happened to perfect a brand-new spell for this exact occasion...!)
"[Hoshihami]," Rest incanted.
A pitch-black sphere manifested at the tip of his right hand. The magic maintaining his levitation dispersed, causing his body to plummet straight toward the earth.
It was skydiving without a parachute. A belated wave of acrophobic terror gripped him.
"This is surprisingly intense...!" Rest gritted out against the rushing wind.
Free-falling from four thousand meters with no magic and no specialized gear.
The terror and frigid air were immense, but this was no time to voice complaints.
Gritting his teeth and enduring it, Rest forced himself to stay calm and carry out his task.
"Absorb the light... O black star that devours all creation!" Rest shouted into the gale.
The entire plain darkened as sunlight waned, as though a total solar eclipse had suddenly descended.
An artificial total eclipse. Humans and monsters alike were surely thrown into panic by the anomaly... but Rest was the sole architect.
Rest was commanding the dark star to devour the sunlight beaming down across the region.
[Hoshihami] was originally an original spell crafted in the image of a black hole.
Therefore, just as a black hole trapped light without escape, devouring light with this spell was a natural application.
"Anything drawn into the dark star is erased without exception... but this time, I won't let it erase it. I'll hold the absorbed light on the brink of erasure and concentrate it!" Rest declared aloud.
The ground rushed closer at terrifying speed.
Three thousand meters, two thousand five hundred, two thousand, fifteen hundred...
As he neared the surface, Sabnock's silhouette grew larger and clearer.
"GYAO...?"
Sabnock, who had been thrashing in search of Rest, looked up at the sky, suspicious of the sudden darkness that had blanketed the land.
Though the sky was enveloped in gloom with most sunlight gone, the beast possessed keen night vision.
Across a distance of over a thousand meters, Rest's eyes locked onto Sabnock's.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
"Looks like you spotted me... but it's too late!" Rest yelled into the wind.
Within Rest's hands rested a sphere bursting with concentrated solar energy.
Falling from four thousand meters to one thousand at two hundred kilometers per hour took roughly one minute.
In that single minute, he had gathered the vast majority of light meant for the entire plains into his palm.
To be honest, even Rest didn't fully comprehend the sheer magnitude of energy contained within.
(When I used it incomplete against that intruder at the academy, the power was impressive. This time it's complete—and holds far more light than back then!)
If this failed against Sabnock, there was no other way to slay it. Rest would die without recourse.
(But... that won't happen. Why? Because I am going to win!)
"[Amaterasu]...!" Rest bellowed.
He spoke the true name of the perfected spell.
Focusing the light contained inside the dark star into a directional beam, he unleashed it.
A blinding beam of pure light shot toward the earth, targeting the giant beast far below.
An aurora emerging from pitch darkness—a strike condensing the power of the sun itself, as though the Sun Goddess had stepped forth from the Heavenly Rock Cave.
"GYAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Sabnock spat a high-pressure jet of acid straight up at Rest descending from above.
Yet it was truly a reckless act of spitting at the heavens. It could never block the divine wrath of the Sun Goddess.
"GYA...!"
Instantly vaporizing the launched acid, the light pierced straight through Sabnock's body.
It bored cleanly through the center of its torso, vaporizing flesh and bone without a sliver of mercy.
The monster that had arrogantly crowned itself "King" met its end, obliterated by divine retribution cast down from the heavens.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Even I'm terrified by that power. My mana hasn't drained, but I'm absurdly exhausted..." Rest muttered, slumping onto the ground.
A divine strike piercing the arrogant fool—Rest's light beam had thoroughly bored through Sabnock's colossal frame.
A gaping hole was gouged into Sabnock's torso, tearing its body in half. The incinerated portion had vaporized so thoroughly that not even bone remained.
The penetrating beam had bored a deep pit into the earth as well. Its bottom was invisible, leaving Rest feeling a chill at the sheer destructive potential he had unleashed.
"I won... but feeling surprisingly little emotion about it..." Rest sighed, looking at his hands.
He had defeated a demonic beast that no one had managed to slay since the founding of the kingdom. It was a historic feat, yet perhaps because it hadn't sunk in yet, his heart remained surprisingly tranquil.
If he reported this achievement to the kingdom, one could only imagine how vast the rewards would be.
Though standing out to such a degree would probably bring more annoyance than benefit.
"...Astonishing. Did you truly defeat the Master of the Demon Realm all by yourself?" a quiet voice asked from behind.
"Hm?" Rest turned around.
Looking back, he saw Wilhelm Ryubass standing there.
Wilhelm bore no visible wounds, indicating he had successfully cleared out the remaining horde of corrosive beasts.
"To think fully mastered magic holds such destructive power... A height that the sword alone cannot reach, I suppose," Wilhelm remarked, his voice tinged with faint frustration.
Though complimenting him, Wilhelm's expression conveyed clear chagrin.
The competitive rivalry radiating from him was likely jealousy over an achievement he could not replicate.
"You're overpraising me... In close-quarters combat, you'd beat me," Rest replied modestly.
"Hmph..." Wilhelm scoffed quietly.
Wilhelm glowered down at Rest with a grimace before finally opening his mouth in displeasure.
"Wilhelm Ryubass. Third son of Baron Ryubass, master of the Almacain Sword Dance, and known as the Sword Saint. We shall be acquainted for a long time, so etch it firmly into your mind," Wilhelm stated firmly.
"......?"
Why was he formally introducing himself at a time like this?
Rest gave him a dubious look in return.
"I shall eventually stand at the apex of this nation's knights as Knight Commander. You will likely become the Grand Master of the Court Magicians, so our association will be a lengthy one," Wilhelm declared with absolute conviction.
"Ah... so that's what you meant," Rest murmured in understanding.
He understood now. In short, Wilhelm acknowledged him as his equal counterpart—one half of the twin wings destined to support the Kingdom of Iwood.
"You're getting ahead of yourself... There are plenty of skilled upperclassmen and active knights out there," Rest chuckled dryly.
"I have no interest in the rabble who simply happened to be born earlier. I will reach the top with this blade... That is all," Wilhelm replied haughtily.
Evidently, Wilhelm possessed supreme confidence in his abilities.
If the senior knights overheard him, they would certainly turn red with fury.
(He's proud, but it doesn't seem like empty boasting... Still way better than Cedric or Prince Rodel.)
"I'm Rest. I don't have a surname yet since I haven't married in," Rest offered, introducing himself in turn.
"......"
Remaining seated on the ground, Rest extended his right hand. Wilhelm grasped it firm, returning the handclasp.
In future histories, they would be hailed as the "Twin Wings" who fought side by side through the turmoil enveloping the Kingdom of Iwood.
And thus, the first joint battle between two men destined to be called heroes came to a triumphant close.
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