Chapter 57

"To be honest, I'll tell you frankly. I didn't know Leandros would oppose it so much. He didn't go easy on anyone, not once! Thirty-two times, all thirty-two sparring matches!"

"Y-Your Grace. Perhaps we should hope for a miracle with the thirty-third."

"After the 32nd ended up in that state, you think there'll be a 33rd?!"

As he pointed accusingly toward the makeshift infirmary where the 32nd applicant was lying, Arndt became dejected.

"Then perhaps you should try persuading Sir Leandros again?"

"He has no sense of compromise, no concept of negotiation."

The problem was that Leandros had been present when they drafted the initial escort knight notice.

After staring blankly at the conditions, he had added a new condition at the bottom before anyone could stop him.

The condition that only those who proved their skills through sparring with him would be eligible.

-If they cannot even cross swords with me, we should first question whether they can even handle sickles for crops, let alone be entrusted with guarding the castle.

-I-Is that so?

At first, he hadn't been suspicious.

After all, companies also conducted aptitude tests and interviews during the hiring process.

Considering that, Leandros's suggestion seemed reasonable, so he hadn't given it much thought.

But when the first applicant came to the castle, Leandros had personally gone out to greet him.

After scrutinizing the applicant, Leandros had abruptly dragged him to the still-unrepaired training ground and said just one thing.

-Come at me.

And what happened was,

He literally beat the applicant like a dog on a hot summer day.

It was a horrifying spectacle for him, the employees, and Arndt, who had all rushed over when they heard an applicant had arrived.

In the end, the ducal family urgently secured a doctor and treated the applicant, and Leandros faced explicit criticism from Arndt.

After that, from the second applicant onwards, he at least formally conducted sparring with wooden swords.

But formality was just formality.

Leandros was always serious, and no one had managed to cross swords with him more than seven times.

Seven was actually considered good.

Most fell out before they even had a chance to gauge the situation.

He had tried to persuade Leandros several times, but each time, Leandros's attitude remained consistent.

That if they couldn't properly face him, they would surely be useless in real combat.

So this was necessary.

"...What should we do now?"

But at this rate, they might become known as the ducal family that beat and chased away applicants, not even escort knights!

Arndt handed him a document with sympathetic eyes as he held his head in his hands.

"This is a document from Aisling. Perhaps we should suspend the escort knight recruitment for now?"

"Are you telling me to do the work?"

"I respectfully submit that it might be faster for Your Grace to handle it directly than to promote me and entrust me with the task?"

"I dislike you just as much."

What was so difficult and important about signing documents that they had to assign it to him meticulously?

He glumly accepted the document and flipped through it dejectedly.

Among the rapidly passing words, he spotted a familiar term.

"This is."

"The Aisling Merchant Group dispatched an investigation team to the location Your Grace designated a few days ago."

"Right. They were going to do some surveying or something to confirm if there was a suitable number of demonic beasts for the business."

"That's right. But it seems they're having trouble because there's an unexpected distribution of demonic beasts in the nearby forest."

Along with the original report from the Aisling Merchant Group, there was a brief explanation of the surrounding geography.

The woodland area that Hartmann had owned during its prime was very vast.

A significant portion was under royal retention, but the area connected to the castle and mountains had been fully returned.

But even that was too extensive for him to fully grasp in his current state.

"Vormi, is it?"

"That's right."

"They normally keep their distance from humans. It seems they want to prevent us from encroaching on their territory while conducting business."

Vormi had been living in the hunting grounds in his first life.

But this time, it seemed they had moved further down due to his negligence.

What a bother.

"But when I was young, didn't we not have this issue?"

The Duchess's diary hadn't recorded any damage from demonic beasts.

Either there was no need to write about it in her personal diary, or she could control demonic beasts with her revelations.

It had to be one of the two.

"Do you remember? It was because madam used her revelations efficiently. She placed the optimal personnel in the right places to prevent demonic beasts from coming down to residential areas."

"Hmm."

"Of course, besides that, she also formed agreements with temples and induced sweeps by allowing church knights access to parts of the mountains. It was a labor-intensive task."

"I imagine there's been no one to do that in the recent years of turmoil."

What a quandary.

The reason the Duchess was able to do that stemmed from the ducal family's military power.

But now they couldn't bring in knights of that scale.

Then was this the only method this time too?

"Arndt, do you like fire shows?"

"What? No? Not at all."

"...I see. Find Leandros for me. I have something to tell him."

* * *

Convincing the two wasn't difficult.

Arndt and Leandros raised their hands in surrender when he said he would burn down the entire forest if this method wasn't used.

He heard Arndt's grumbling that his temper was getting fiercer with each passing day, but as long as the results were good, that was all that mattered.

Since they knew the route the Vormi had come down, setting up a hunting plan was straightforward.

The hunting location was, of course, that hunting ground.

The place where he had first experienced death.

However, in this life, instead of keeping Arndt outside, they decided he would go with him to the watchtower.

An orange sky at dusk, and a large lamp in hand.

Leandros escorted them to the tall watchtower and then disappeared.

It felt strange when the reliable escort vanished into the darkness.

"Y-Your Grace. Isn't it too desolate and frightening here?"

"Is it?"

Arndt looked around, clutching the lamp tightly.

Looking at him, a chuckle escaped his lips.

"The watchtower is old, so if it shakes, run out immediately."

"Don't say things like that!"

"I can come back to life, but you can't. Shouldn't you be more careful than me?"

"Why do you keep saying that? Stop saying it!"

Seeing him protesting, he finally burst into laughter.

As he laughed for a while and teased Arndt, the sky gradually began to darken.

Arndt lit the lamp and hung it on the ceiling hook so it would be visible from afar.

When an eerie howling sound was heard from a distance, Arndt began signaling the visible positions with the lamp.

He sat behind Arndt, who was working diligently, and observed the forest.

It was more surveillance than observation.

Because they never knew when a mutated Vormi might appear.

If that happened, it was no joke – he would have to become bait before Arndt.

Wait, which is more painful, falling from a watchtower?

Or being torn to shreds?

He suddenly found himself pondering this.

After thinking earnestly for a long while, it became completely night.

The frequency of the Vormi's howls had noticeably decreased compared to earlier.

"Shall we head back for today?"

"Would that be good? I'll signal Sir Leandros to stop."

"If we try to finish it all today, there would be no end. We'll have to come and sweep several times, then move to the next area."

"Yes."

Just as Arndt was about to lower the lamp from the hook.

Something moved between the trees behind the watchtower, in the direction he had been watching.

It quickly hid in the shadows, so he couldn't see it clearly.

But.

"Arndt. Leandros is... not around here now, right?"

"Yes. He said he'd come to the watchtower when the hunt was over, so he might be coming now? I'll turn off the lamp."

"No. Don't turn it off."

"What?"

"Don't turn it off, just cover it with a cloth. So we can see the surroundings from here. And when Leandros comes, tell him which direction I went."

"Your Grace?"

"I'm going ahead."

Though Arndt called out "Your Grace!" from behind, he immediately began descending the watchtower.

As he came down the creaking ladder, almost sliding, the dark surroundings were ominously quiet.

He had no choice.

Having made his decision, he began running in the opposite direction from the watchtower and where Leandros was.

Because he had to prevent it from discovering Arndt.

The path with sparse trees soon changed into a forest filled with dense undergrowth.

Finally stopping his run, he looked around.

The eerie sound of an owl hooting, and occasionally the sound of flapping wings.

When the wind rustled the leaves, he turned around startled, but there was nothing.

Not knowing where or what might appear was driving him crazy.

It's okay, it's still okay.

As he kept reassuring himself and catching his breath, his vision became slightly dizzy.

And something flowed from his nose.

"Ah."

Of all times, this timing.

While trying to stop and clumsily wipe the nosebleed that was dripping onto the front of his cloak, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Sweat smell, body odor was one thing.

But if he went around emitting the smell of blood like this, if there was something other than Vormi in this territory.

How should he die this time?

A cold, chilly wind blew.

Air as cool and soft as a dead person's hand brushed over his forehead.

A quiet prelude, as if something was about to happen.

If he had to die today, this would be the perfect moment.

At that very moment,

Something firmly grasped his shoulder.

"Excuse me."

"Aaaaaaah!"

"Ugh!"

It was a reflexive action.

Terrified, he threw a punch without even looking properly.

With a strangely crisp "Thud!" sound, the shadow slumped to the ground.

Only then did he realize that what had grabbed his shoulder was neither a monster, nor a bandit or thief.

The person who had fallen to the ground appeared to be a young man in his twenties, but his appearance was quite disheveled.

The iron armor he wore was quite dirty and had many scratches.

Not just the armor, but the person wearing it was in a similar state.

His face and various parts of his body showed quite a few traces of injuries.

He alternated glances between his fist and the man who had fainted with dried grass and leaves stuck to his yellow hair.

Could he have fainted from that punch?

Why?

Had he somehow gained a skill like "Nuclear Fist" in this iteration?

Just as he was blankly staring at his own fist.

Along with urgent footsteps, voices calling for His Grace were heard from a distance.

Before he could even think about hiding this person, Arndt and Leandros came running through the trees, panting.

"Your Grace, please be s... Huh?"

"...?"

Him, with his fist raised and a nosebleed flowing.

And the armored man collapsed on the ground.

Nothing else around.

Arndt and Leandros looked at him.

He looked back at the two of them.

Arndt asked in confusion.

"Did Your Grace, with that fist, knock out that person...? Is that possible...?"

"No!"

As if he could have done that!

And don't ask if it's possible!