DAR Vol. 6 Chapter 22 Part 4

The royal castle of the Kingdom of Nereus sat on a small island out at sea.

In any nation’s capital, the closer you were to the royal castle, the more prestigious the district became, and the better the land was considered. Noble townhouses lined the streets in a ring around the castle, then beyond that were the merchants’ quarter, the commoners’ quarter, the artisans’ quarter, and finally, farmland.

But here, the royal castle was in the ocean, which meant the water around it was just more ocean.

As a result, the coastline became the closest “land” to the castle, and noble estates ended up packed along the shore.

Of course, there was another reason, too.

The sea turns violent on a regular basis. Even short of full-blown tsunamis, storms, and other natural disasters strike often, and houses along the coast always carry risk.

So if you built by the water, you needed a second residence prepared somewhere inland, a place you could flee to at a moment’s notice.

Only nobles could afford to meet that condition.

For that reason, aside from a few vacation homes owned by wealthy merchants, nearly every mansion along the coast, excluding the port, belonged to the nobility.

The Marquis family estate Roa and the others were brought to was, naturally, on the shore. It was an enormous manor with several detached guest houses, a garden to match, and even a private beach.

“The ocean’s huge…”

<Salty? Why?>

<There are fish!!>

They’d been told to wait in the garden and have tea until their room was ready, but Roa and the twin magic wolves, Roo and Phi, ran out of patience and slipped down to the marquis family’s private beach.

Since it was privately owned, there was nobody else around. The wide, empty stretch of sand made one boy and two wolves giddy, and they tore across it at full speed.

It was Roa’s first time seeing the sea, and it was the twins’, too.

He’d been to large lakes before, but this was nothing like that. The scenery, the air, even the feel of it all was different, and they were practically bouncing off the walls.

If someone had been watching, Roa might have restrained himself at least a little.

But the marquis family’s garden and beach were so vast that no one was in sight anymore. Even if Roa acted childish, there was no one here to scold him.

The slanting sunlight glittered across the surface of the water. The glare was strong, but the ocean breeze made everything feel perfect.

<Roa! Can we catch fish!!?>

<Gathering! Fish I’ve never seen! Weird seaweed! There are crabs, too!!>

Roa walked along the sand, careful not to soak his boots, but the twins did not care in the slightest. They sprinted along the surfline, eyes shining as they peered into the water.

“Since we’re going to be going inside the manor, don’t get too wet, okay?”

<It’s fine! Roo can dry us right away!>

<Phi can freeze it and shake it off, so it’s fine!>

The moment they said that, they apparently hit their limit. Without waiting for Roa’s answer, they charged straight into the sea.

They plunged in with enough force to split the waves, sending a spectacular spray into the air.

The splash reached Roa and dotted his cheek.

At first, it looked like they intended to hunt fish, but moving properly in the water wasn’t as easy as they’d imagined. Before long, they gave up and got absorbed in swimming for fun instead. Roa watched them with a wry smile, his gaze gentle.

After a while, Roa began gathering things washed up along the shore.

At first he just picked up shells and driftwood, the sort of things he’d never seen before. But soon he got carried away, and before long he was stuffing sand into a bag.

It might have looked like a child playing in the sand, but for Roa it was serious harvesting work.

Beach sand, called silica sand, could be used as a raw material for glass. Sand constantly washed and purified by ocean waves seemed like it would have a higher purity, and that thought hooked Roa’s curiosity.

<…Huh?>

The twins suddenly stopped swimming, lifted their heads above the water, and scanned the area.

<Someone’s coming.>

<Didn’t notice until they got close. Tough? Strong enemy?>

Hearing that, Roa hurriedly looked around. A little way off, he spotted a man walking toward them.

“Hey, kid.”

The man raised one hand and called out casually.

He wore black travel gear and had a solid build. He looked middle-aged, with chestnut hair shot through with gray, fluttering in the sea breeze.

Even Roa could tell from his physique that the man was a veteran of countless battles. His steps were steady even on the sand, and a large sword hung at his hip.

He’s scary, Roa thought.

The man was smiling, teeth showing, yet he radiated an unmistakable sense that you should not get close.

<Roa!>

<Are you okay?!>

Roo and Phi scrambled out of the sea and rushed to Roa’s side.

“Magic wolf pups? Those coats are awfully vivid. Either way, kid, this is the marquis family’s property. It isn’t a place you can enter without permission. You know that, don’t you?”

“Uh… um…”

Roa hesitated, words catching in his throat.

He was about to say he was a guest of the marquis family, but then he froze, unsure if he was allowed to claim that. After all, the ones invited were Dietrich and the others. Roa was just the tagalong, wasn’t he?

At a strange moment like this, Roa’s low self-esteem surfaced.

From the man’s tone, he was clearly connected to the marquis family.

If Roa said he was a guest, the man might sneer that someone like him could never be a guest here, and accuse him of overstepping his station. That fear locked his tongue.

“Can’t even answer? Then a bad kid needs to be punished.”

While Roa wrestled with what to say, the distance between them vanished.

The twins planted themselves in front of Roa, baring their fangs and growling, but the man, wrapped in a dangerous air, did not even spare them a glance. His attitude made it clear he considered magic wolf pups beneath his notice.

With a perfectly natural motion, he put his hand on the sword at his hip.

Roa could see it. He understood what it meant.

He was going to cut Roa down.

And yet Roa could not move, as if his body had been bound.

Roo and Phi were the same.

They were close enough to leap, and they had more than enough power in their legs, but their bodies would not obey.

Scary…

The instant that thought surfaced, Roa and the twins realized what was happening.

Fear had rooted them in place.

The man slowly drew his sword as if to show it off, then swung at Roa. He raised it high and brought it straight down in a clean overhead cut.

Every movement looked slow, yet everything was fast. It was as though time itself had been stretched.

Roa stood there, rigid. He could not even throw up a hand to shield his head, let alone twist away.

The blade dropped toward Roa’s skull.

Kiiing, a sharp metallic ring echoed across the beach.

“Gah!”

Strangely enough, the rough shout came from the man.

The sword that should have landed was flung back up to its starting position. His posture collapsed, his whole body arching backward.

“What?! It got knocked away?!”

The man stared at Roa, shock plain on his face.

<Now!>

<Crush him!!>

The man tried to recover his balance, but the twins would never waste that opening.

The instant he shouted, the fear vanished for reasons Roa could not understand.

Maybe it was pure instinct. Roo and Phi chose their target and launched without hesitation, aiming for the spot farthest from the sword, his legs.

Crush a human’s legs and their combat ability plummets. Normally it was a difficult target, but with the sword rebounding and his stance broken, it was wide open.

“Wait!! Don’t kill him!!”

Just as their fangs were about to reach his legs, Kristoff’s desperate shout rang out.

Roa jerked his eyes toward the voice and saw Kristoff sprinting in from a distance.

“That man is the Sword Saint! Stop it!!”

Kristoff kept yelling, but the twin magic wolves had no reason to obey him.

They obeyed Roa’s words without exception, but there were times they ignored even Uncle Gry’s instructions. Even when they seemed close to Dietrich, they only listened to him when it suited them.

For magic wolves like them, there was a clear hierarchy and clear priorities.

Right now, the highest priority was punishing the one who tried to hurt Roa.

“Gaaah!”

The man’s scream tore out, accompanied by the heavy thud of something hitting the sand.

Sand exploded into the air.

The moment they struck his legs, he toppled onto his back in the beach sand.

Roo scorched his left leg; Phi froze his right. Even the frozen leg was venting white vapor from the sudden temperature change.

<Legs crushed!>

<Take the sword! I’ll lock his legs in ice so he can’t walk.>

<It’s fine! His wrist’s hurt from before, so he can’t grab the sword!>

<Should we crush his throat? If he calls allies, that’s annoying.>

The twins’ cheerful voices carried across the beach. Just as they said, the man’s wrist had been injured by the shock of having his blade knocked away.

“Quit it already!! Roa! Stop them!!”

<We’re not “the twins”! Roo and>

<Phi!>

Roa was still frozen, overwhelmed by the chaos.

One moment someone had swung a sword at him, and the next that person had “self-destructed.” It was too much to process, and he couldn’t react fast enough.

“Roa!!”

“Huh? Ah… Roo, Phi, stop.”

Kristoff called his name again, and only then did Roa truly register what was happening.

He gave the order to stop the twins, who were just about to set a paw on the man’s throat and crush it.

At the same time, the fear from before surged back, and Roa’s legs gave out. He dropped into a crouch on the spot.

<Okay!>

<Got it!>

The man’s lower body was encased in ice, like a small iceberg. On his back, he could not move at all.

His right wrist, injured in the earlier impact, was swollen dark red. There was no way he could grip a sword. Something was definitely broken. His whole body was coated in sand from the fall.

“…What happened?”

Gritting his teeth through the pain, the man forced out a baffled question.

Kristoff reached him and leaned in to check his face. Seeing he was still alive, he finally let out a breath.

Roo and Phi, meanwhile, seemed to have already lost interest. They dashed to Roa, tails wagging, pressing close as if to demand praise.

Even though Roa still didn’t fully understand the situation, the man had tried to attack him, and the twins had protected him. So Roa reached out and petted their heads.

“Sword Saint, you were repelled.”

“You’re Dietrich’s tagalong…? I see. So you came back with them.”

The man, the Sword Saint, recognized Kristoff once he saw his face. Realizing the one calming the situation was an acquaintance who seemed to reassure him, and the pain-twisted tension eased from his features.

“So… I lost to that child?”

“To the child, and to his magic wolf familiars. Honestly, you brought this on yourself with that pointless prank. The world has children even you can’t handle, you know.”

“…Is that so…? Apparently… it is.”

The Sword Saint stared at his swollen right arm, then sighed as if he’d accepted it.

“And that child is not an intruder. He’s one of us, and a guest of the Marquis family. His name is Roa. He’s an adventurer, and an alchemist.”

“I see. So I misunderstood.”

“Good thing I stopped them before you were killed.”

<We won’t kill you.>

<Uncle Gry said killing humans is a pain! So unless Roa or Uncle Gry tells us to, we won’t kill anyone!>

The twins cut in over Kristoff’s words as he spoke with the Sword Saint.

Even as they talked, they were completely absorbed in being petted by Roa, not even bothering to look at Kristoff. They hadn’t been listening intently, they just answered because they could hear him.

<If we kill humans, we might not be able to stay with Roa anymore, you know? Besides, Uncle Gry said humans taste awful!>

<So we’ll keep it to injuries Roa can fix with his medicine! If they don’t die, it’s fine!>

Hearing them say something so cruel in such cute voices, Kristoff checked the Sword Saint’s wounds.

They really had held back. The attacks were limited to both arms and both legs, without so much as a scratch on his head or torso.

…Still, the thought that that scheming Gryphon might actually know what humans taste like sent a cold shiver down Kristoff’s spine. He forced himself to reconsider. Maybe it was just a blunt, easy-to-grasp way of teaching the twins not to kill people. He wanted to believe that.

“Um… so, what was that just now? Why did I almost get cut down?”

Roa, apparently calmer now, spoke to Kristoff. He still looked pretty rattled, but he stood and edged closer, keeping a cautious distance. Even his voice carried lingering bewilderment.

“…My apologies. I meant to frighten a child who’d trespassed. I was mistaken.”

The Sword Saint answered first.

“The Sword Saint’s policy is that if a kid does something wrong, you should scare them badly enough they’ll never do it again,” Kristoff added with a sigh. “He pressures them down, then swings with a last-second stop. That’s his usual routine.”

In other words, the Sword Saint had mistaken Roa for a child who’d snuck onto a noble’s grounds, and he’d intended to punish him harshly enough to make sure he never did it again.

Roa freezing in place under that stare was probably the intimidation at work. And that straight, deliberate overhead strike was meant to sear fear into him.

For even the twins to be immobilized under it, he really was the Sword Saint.

In the end, he likely meant to stop the blade before it touched Roa, then lecture him or threaten him into leaving.

But he picked the wrong target.

Before he could pull it short, some unseen force knocked the sword away, injuring his wrist. Then the twin magic wolves followed up and dropped him for good.

“That scheming Gryphon told me I’d get to see something interesting, so I came to check… no, never mind!” Kristoff blurted, then caught himself. “Roa! Can you tell them to remove the ice pinning his legs down?”

He nearly let slip that he’d come because Uncle Gry promised “something interesting,” but remembered mid-sentence that the Sword Saint was right there, and swallowed it.

As it happened, Kristoff really had come because Uncle Gry told him, “Go check on Roa. You’ll see something interesting.”

And when he arrived, he saw the Sword Saint swing at Roa. Since Kristoff knew the old man’s “last-second stop,” he’d thought it would end safely and just watched, figuring it might even be a good experience for Roa.

Then this happened.

Was Uncle Gry’s “interesting thing” the force that knocked the sword away?

They said the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship could even cleave magic. He hadn’t truly meant to kill Roa, but even so, for his technique to be repelled hard enough to injure him… that really was “interesting.”

If so, then it must have been some safeguard Uncle Gry had set to protect Roa.

Kristoff kept all of that off his face and simply urged Roa to treat the Sword Saint’s injuries.

“…Uncle Gry… then that means earlier, too…” Roa murmured, clearly thinking the same thing. After a brief pause, he decided it wasn’t something to say out loud right now. “Got it. I’ll have them clear the ice, and I’ll treat you too.”

“Well, at least it ended with injuries this minor.”

Wounding the Sword Saint, who was also the former Marquis, should have been a catastrophe. But since the Sword Saint had already apologized first, it would probably end without punishment.

More importantly, the Sword Saint wasn’t the type to cling to grudges, and he certainly wasn’t the type to hold a vendetta just because someone managed to hurt him. With Roa’s healing magic potion, these injuries would be fixed without trouble.

For now, at least, it seemed like things would settle cleanly. Kristoff let out a quiet sigh of relief.

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