"So, Tenma. What are your impressions?"
On the scheduled training day, Duke Sanga came to me after the mock battle ended sooner than expected and asked for my thoughts on it, as though he wanted to hear them just in case.
"Well… it depends on the situation, but I think it's best not to try to fight them. At least, if you go in with only one or two people trying to win, you'll definitely die. With three, if you fight well, you might be able to buy enough time — that's about the size of it."
Thinking about the Chaos case, buying time could lead to the opponent destroying itself. That's the only strategy available, and it was the conclusion I arrived at.
"How was Primera?"
"Primera and her adjutant — if a magic-skilled knight supported those two, they might be able to put up a decent fight against Chaos. Well, I say 'might,' but I think the chances of being killed are still higher."
Primera and her adjutant could hold their own even in the Royal Guard, but most of the others were only slightly better than regular soldiers. Their coordination and individual strength had improved since before, sure, but they still weren't at the level needed to contend with Chaos.
"Does that mean it would be better not to form a liaison unit?"
"No — with further training, I think their chances of survival would go up considerably. But I believe we need to drill into them that fighting should be a last resort, and that running away or simply surviving should take priority."
Even as I said it, I felt many in the Fourth Unit couldn't pull off that kind of fighting. Most of them came from noble families, and while their abilities lagged behind other units, their pride was higher than anyone else's.
"I see… And what kind of training do you think the Fourth Unit needs?"
Without a beat, I answered Duke Sanga's question:
"Building stamina first. Then building muscle strength."
Ideally, they'd have the endurance and speed to outrun Monsters on foot, but I knew that was unrealistic. At the very least, when scattered and fleeing, they should be able to escape with minimal casualties.
"It may sound harsh, but I also think we should incorporate tactics based on the premise of sacrificing someone."
"Indeed, that may be necessary… Now then, what do you think should be done to make them capable of winning in a fight?"
The Duke seemed to be asking how to win without using bait, which was actually a simpler matter. The answer was:
"If we consider a squad unit as three people, assembling a trio whose abilities exceed Amur, a Royal Guard, and Eliza would dramatically improve their chances of victory."
Those three had nearly cornered Chaos, and I believed the biggest reasons they lost were carelessness and lack of information. If they could assemble a trio that surpassed those three in overall capability, victory would be possible. That said, Amur was top-class in this country as a front-liner, the Royal Guard ranked among the strongest knights, and Eliza was a mage of considerable power. How many trios exceeding all three of them could you put together, even combining the Royal Guard and the Royal Capital's knights? That was the level we were talking about — meaning the Fourth Unit alone could never manage it, no matter how you looked at it.
"That's... impossible. If we rounded up every knight in the Sanga Duchy and picked the best from among them, we might be able to put together a few groups. But there's no guarantee we'd assemble enough to form proper squads, and more importantly, it would drastically weaken our forces everywhere else."
"As for other options, we could simply increase the number of fighters. But the more people involved, the harder coordination becomes, and we'd lose the speed a relay team needs. So realistically, the best we could do is three squads of three?"
"That's true. With nine people, proper coordination is possible depending on training... but even so, it's still a shortage of manpower."
If we had them operate in groups of nine, the relay teams would end up short-staffed instead.
"We could always supplement the numbers with Golems... Ah! Actually, for a few years now, my family has been working to secure mages capable of building Golems, and we've only recently started to have a decent number of them."
Perhaps worried we might think he was counting on my Golems, he quickly added that they could provide their own.
"As expendable pawns, the cost is steep — but it's still better than losing human lives."
He probably wouldn't want to waste Golems if he could help it, but having nobles die on you meant their families would raise a fuss — and in the worst case, it could even lead to defection. So all things considered, sacrificing Golems was the lesser evil, Duke Sanga said with a sigh.
"So to keep Golem costs from ballooning, all we can do is push Primera and the others to train harder... Primera! Get those squad members on their feet already! We can't have them looking pathetic in front of the Royal Guard and the Royal Capital's knights forever!"
The Duke barked at the knights who were still sprawled on the ground or sitting in a heap. But fewer than half managed to respond to his voice right away — not even twenty of them, by the count.
"I-I apologize, Your Grace! Fourth Unit, fall in!"
At Primera's hastily barked orders, the knights who had already gotten to their feet lent shoulders to those still wincing, and the unit fell into a formation — crooked, but a formation nonetheless.
"Salute His Majesty!"
Primera and her unit saluted toward the King, who stood some distance away from the Duke and me. The King responded with a casual raise of his hand.
"At ease! Salute Duke Sanga and Tenma Ootori!"
Next, they saluted the Duke and me. The Duke answered with the same casual hand raise the King had given, but I had no idea what the proper response was, so I simply gave a slight bow.
Seeing me bow, Primera marched the unit to the edge of the field and called a rest.
"Duke Sanga, I'm sorry for making unreasonable demands."
"Not at all. I'm sure it was a good experience for them. Even as knights of the Duchy, they belong to a regional city's order — they rarely get the chance to visit the Royal Castle, let alone swing a sword before His Majesty. This will be something they can boast about."
When Duke Sanga said that, the King nodded magnanimously. This was all part of a script the King already knew.
"Your Majesty, do you have a moment?"
From here on, it was a story the King knew nothing about.
Standing behind Caesar-sama, who had addressed the King, were Maria-sama and Lyle. Lyle didn't seem to have been told what was about to happen yet, as he appeared no different from usual.
The King, called over by Caesar-sama, approached them without showing any particular concern — even though this wasn't part of what he had been informed of in advance. He was then led out of sight... and never returned.
" Duke Sanga, Tenma — I apologize for leaving you unattended. His Majesty and the Minister of Military Affairs had to step away due to an urgent matter."
Caesar-sama was the only one who came back, offering words of apology to the Duke and me. Well, it was all an act put on for the onlookers, of course.
"Even so, looking at the situation, if something were to happen, the damage to the relay unit could be quite significant."
"Yes, I was just discussing that with Tenma. At the rate things are going, we'd either need to increase the unit's numbers to compensate, or resort to using Golems as expendable pawns."
"I see. That's a tough situation... Well, it might be good to have them participate in training at the royal castle now and then. It would be stimulating for both sides."
Caesar-sama said that maybe this could be used as an opportunity to allow other nobles' knights to join in as well, and that he would propose the idea to Lyle next time — who wasn't present here — before walking off in the direction the King and the others had disappeared to.
"Well, it probably won't come to fruition. Especially the Reformist Faction — they wouldn't want their military strength known, and even if they did participate, we'd be lucky to get mid-ranking knights."
In reality, the ones Duke Sanga had brought along were the Fourth Unit of the Gunjou City Knight Order — knights who, until recently, had been treated as dead weight. It wasn't as if their capabilities being discovered would cause any trouble; they were an unremarkable bunch.
"That said, it's a welcome development for us. It makes it easier to have our knights participate. Ideally, we'd want them to build up a reasonable level of competence before other nobles join in... but that'll be difficult."
Difficult, because building up strength in the Fourth Unit would take time, and also because once Marquis Samons heard about this, he would likely push to have his own knights participate right away.
"If Marquis Samons hears about the relay unit, he'll probably set up something similar."
I had wondered whether this world even had units dedicated to delivering messages, but apparently they did exist. However, they were typically manned by available knights pulling double duty, which made them inefficient.
"They supposedly existed in the past, but since they weren't reliable as fighting forces and required a large number of horses, they were phased out under the guise of cutting expenses. Besides, for short-distance communication, adventurers will take on the job. It's cheaper that way."
Hearing that, the first thing that came to mind was Ted. Adventurers who employed Monsters like Ted to transport information might seem expensive at first glance, but since they provided their own means of travel, there were no costs for keeping and managing horses. Depending on the adventurer, they could deliver messages faster than a mounted knight, and if they were caught up in an accident or incident along the way, there was no need to replace fallen knights or compensate bereaved families. Of course, there were drawbacks like information being stolen, but for anything truly important, you simply wouldn't use an adventurer in the first place — so the advantages seemed to outweigh the disadvantages.
"There have been incidents like the Wyvern scare in the Houst Border Territory or the Imperial invasion scare, and now there's this Monster incident as well. A time will surely come when having your own dedicated communication unit becomes necessary. If you think about it this way, the extra expense is unavoidable."
Just as I was thinking that, the Royal Guard appeared in the training ground where the Fourth Unit had been practicing moments before.
"Tenma! Since we're all here, you're sparring with us!"
The one who shouted the invitation was Jean. Today, the Royal Guard's main force was gathered in full, and everyone looked brimming with fighting spirit, so even if I refused, they probably wouldn't let me off. Sure enough, Chris and Edgar were already circling around behind me to cut off my escape.
"Anyone from the Gunjou City Knights who wants to join in, feel free to jump in anytime!"
When Din shouted that, Primera was the first to react, followed by her vice-captain, and then over a dozen more stood up — but among the noble-born knights, only the first two had risen from their seats.
"Then, shall I be Primera's opponent?"
"Please!"
Chris seized Primera first and headed off away from me before anyone else. Behind her, a female Royal Guard knight grabbed one of the Fourth Unit's female knights the same way and brought her over near Chris.
Seeing that the Fourth Unit's female knights had been snatched away, the other Royal Guard knights began grabbing the Fourth Unit's knights who were standing, one after another.
"Then, Tenma-kun, how about we do this like always?"
Edgar flashed his refreshing smile and made moves to drag me over to where Din, Jean, and Sigurd were waiting — an act I could only regard as downright sadistic.
"You keep saying 'like always,' but we've never done this combination before, have we? I'm fine if magic's allowed, but what's the call?"
"Fine, fine. Edgar, you can spar with him later!"
"No — it's not Edgar. Din, you're the one who needs to drop out!"
"Then Sigurd drops out too! Tenma, that works, right?"
I nodded in agreement, but just before we started,
(We've never sparred as this trio before... but thinking about it normally, isn't this gonna be brutal?)
— was what I thought, but it was already too late. Without magic, my track record against Din was roughly even at best, and adding Jean to the mix meant my chances of winning were effectively zero. If it were anyone other than Jean — say, someone paired with Din the way Chris was with Din — I could at least use that person as a shield or a weapon and find some opening. But Jean never left any such gap. I was glued to Din from the front while Jean's strikes rained down from behind — a beating that no matter how you looked at it could only be called pure bullying.
When the elder bullying session ended, it was Edgar, Sigurd, and Chris with Primera who came at me next. And they struck without even leaving me a moment to catch my breath, like launching a surprise ambush. Naturally, I was spent after that earlier pummeling, and could barely keep my guard up. I was being pushed back by all four of them, but since they never landed a decisive blow, I suppose you'd call it a draw.
However, after Jean called time, Chris was saying things like, "We had the advantage, so that's our win," so I told her, "If four of you came at me and still couldn't take me down, that means you lost, Chris." That led to a standoff with Chris glaring at me from a careful distance, but when I said, "If you've got a complaint, take it up with Din and Jean first," Chris was dragged off by Din and Jean — and received the same kind of bullying I had.
"Can't say it's all Chris's fault, but you're pretty merciless yourself, Tenma-kun."
"Well, since winning the martial tournament, Chris has been letting it go to her head a bit, so this is good for her."
Edgar and Sigurd didn't step in to defend Chris, watching quietly as she was being disciplined.
"Tenma, are you okay?"
"I'm tired, but not really hurt... yeah, I'm fine."
A bit of injury during training was everyday business, so I said I was fine apart from the fatigue. But when I said that, Primera still looked worried, so I asked, "You got roped into this by Chris, didn't you?" and she hesitated but gave a small nod.
I told her that was all Chris's fault and she didn't need to feel bad about it, and Edgar and Sigurd said the same to encourage her. The female knights of the Royal Knights who saw that started saying similar things as well. The result was:
"Why did my reputation in the unit drop after surviving that grueling from the demons?!"
That's how things went, with Chris's reputation within her unit plummeting. Well, half of that was because everyone was putting on an act to tease Chris... but some of it probably did drop for real, and I don't think I'm imagining that.
"Alright! That's enough!"
With Din's command, training ended for the day. Maybe because the Fourth Unit was here, the Royal Knights seemed more fired up than usual. Because of that, the Royal Knights were smiling and relaxed, chatting about their plans or telling jokes, while the knights of the Fourth Unit looked like they had died several times over - only the adjutant and a few veterans were still standing.
"F-fourth Unit... Atten-tion... B-bow!"
Primera saw the Royal Knights starting to line up and hurriedly got everyone to stand and bow. Seeing that, the Royal Knights responded in their own ways - calling out, waving - and at Din's dismissal, they either started stretching or headed back into the castle.
"How many of them do you think will still be okay tomorrow?"
"Maybe a little less than half... of course, I'll be fine."
"I think it'll be even less. Of course, I'll definitely be fine."
At my question, Edgar smiled and said less than half, while Sigurd said it would be even fewer. Just as they said, I thought so too. After all, no matter how much the Royal Knights surpassed normal knights in both stamina and skill, they had trained with more spirit than usual, with more people than usual, and quite a few of the Royal Knights had been putting extra effort into showing the Fourth Unit a thing or two. Normally, they would be just as wiped out as the Fourth Unit.
"Well, being able to endure is also a necessary skill for a Royal Knight."
"Can't exactly show weakness in front of other units, can we?"
"Saying that, aren't the two of you just enduring way too much~?"
Chris was the one who teased Edgar and she looked like she was also enduring pretty hard herself, so she had no room to talk.
"Lately, Edgar's been complaining about how his muscle soreness doesn't kick in until two days later, and Sigurd's been worrying about his thinning hair, hasn't he? That's just age, isn't it? The day you make way for the younger generation must be coming soon, right?"
Chris said that, treating the two of them like old men... but she wasn't really that much younger than them. In fact, they were close enough in age that you could call them contemporaries.
The two of them, treated like old men by Chris, were quietly seething. They were clenching their fists so tight that you'd think blood would seep through, their foreheads bulging with veins so pronounced you'd think blood might spray out at any moment. And Chris still hadn't noticed their rage.
"Huh?"
I was half-excited to see what would happen as I watched the three of them, when I noticed Jean making gestures from a distance, signaling me to do something about Chris... with a smile on his face. When I gestured back that it was impossible, Din started doing the same thing, clearly amused.
"Oh well... let's see, I think today is... oh! There it is, there it is! Come on, out you go!"
To meet Jean and Din's expectations, I peered into the Dimension Bag I'd stashed in the corner. And then,
I unleashed
a demon.
"Me? ...Meh!"
"Wait, the target is Chris... now's my chance to settle the score for all those times!"
And so, I egged on the black demon known as "Mary."
Mary momentarily braced herself, as if she was about to body-slam me, but right before she could leap, I held up a hand to stop her and directed her gaze toward Chris. Mary seemed to immediately grasp what I meant. For Mary, who was always being forcibly cuddled and bottled up her stress, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Meh... meh!"
After staring at me with a look of something like respect, Mary let out a cry as if saluting,
"Meee... meeeeeeeeeh!"
And charged straight at Chris.
"Wha—? W-why is Mary here— wait, not now, stay away! Not now! I'm sorry, I'm so— owwwwwwww!"
Sure enough, Chris hadn't actually had any energy to spare for mocking Edgar and Sigurd (in fact, it seemed like she had even less than the two of them). Even though she noticed Mary charging, she couldn't get away in time. She took a body-slam to the back, went flying, and then Mary pounced on her while she was rolling on the ground. Chris was experiencing the torments of hell. And as she writhed, the remaining knights of the Royal Guard were laughing at her. Jean and Din were laughing their heads off without any restraint, while Edgar and Sigurd wore smug grins on their faces. On top of that, some of the knights who'd been about to leave heard Chris's screams and came back to see what was happening, so the sight of Chris getting demolished by Mary was witnessed by the entire Royal Guard.
"Mary, come back now."
"Stop!"
Mary had repeatedly body-slammed and stomped on Chris as she tried to crawl away, and by the end, she was sitting on top of the now-motionless Chris with a satisfied look on her face.
It pained me to call Mary away, but we really needed to head back, so I called out to her to come. To my surprise, she obediently returned and climbed into the Dimension Bag on her own.
"Tenma... I never told you to go that far."
"Neither did I... More importantly, why did you even bring her along?"
Din and Jean had been put off by Mary's display, but when I told them that Chris had brought it on herself to some extent and there was nothing to be done about it, they conceded the point and ordered a nearby female knight to move Chris to a corner.
"As for why I brought Mary... She went on a rampage at our place and got the laundry all dirty, so Jeanne and the others kicked her out."
Well, saying "kicked out" might be a bit of an exaggeration — she was stuffed into the Dimension Bag and handed off to me on my way to the royal castle. Jeanne and the others probably figured that the best way to get the laundry redone and the rest of the cleaning finished was to pass the troublesome Mary off to me and get her out of the manor.
When I explained this to the two of them, Din said, "Keeping quiet about bringing her along was a problem, but since no one besides Chris was harmed, we'll let it slide." As expected, they weren't happy about me concealing the fact that I'd brought her, but because she wasn't a Monster and no real damage had been done, they let me off the hook.
"However, there is a condition."
After receiving a whisper from one of the knights who had finished carrying Chris away, Jean proposed a trade. It was—
"A Shiromaru petting session? If you're willing to prepare treats for Shiromaru, I think that can be arranged."
When I said that, cheers erupted from the female knights of the Royal Guard, along with some of the male ones. As it turned out, the knights who could serve as escorts for Maria and the others were limited even among the Guard — it was mostly the same ones who'd visited Kukuri Village back in the day, like Din, Jean, and Chris. Even when other knights were occasionally assigned to the rotation, they usually ended up waiting outside or having to return to the royal castle at some point.
Because of that, the animal-loving knights — just like Chris — always looked at her with envy, since she got to interact with Shiromaru and Mary whenever she pleased. And knowing full well how they felt, Chris would apparently boast about Shiromaru's silky fur and how cuddly Ali was to hold.
"Hm? ...Oh, right. I should pass that along too."
While I was discussing the date of the petting session with Din, another female knight came up to whisper something to Jean.
"Tenma, about the petting session — they want Chris banned from attending. Shouldn't be a problem, right?"
That was apparently the request, so I nodded immediately. The condition was that they would have to keep Chris under control and handle both the running and security of the petting session, to which voices of immediate agreement were heard.
A few days after training had ended, Edgar told me a story: several copies of an incident report had been left on the desk of Chris — the only person who'd been left behind in the Royal Guard's lounge, supposedly stuck doing paperwork organization. The report detailed how an unidentified masked individual (according to the security knights) had attempted to sneak into the petting session for Shiromaru, Mary, and Ali, had been spotted by the knights, was chased all over the venue, but managed to escape — and their whereabouts remained unknown.