"What are you doing! You foul Monsters, step forth at once and face my blade!"
The knight shouted from atop his warhorse. He looked incredibly young — perhaps only seventeen years old.
To challenge someone to a duel meant death nine times out of ten, and shouting down four thousand enemy soldiers to their faces required colossal nerve. He was undoubtedly a brave young man.
"Foolish."
Vassago sneered.
"From the fact that you don't name your house, you're at best a second-class warrior. You intend to stand against our Demon Lord Army with that level of skill? Summon the Elemental King at once and show them the difference in class."
"One moment, Lord Vassago. Please wait."
Vassago furrowed his brow. In his impatience, he had already begun radiating blue magical energy from his entire body.
"I told you beforehand that I would be commanding the army."
"No, but isn't that strange? This is an army of that size. Surely there's at least one Sword Master among them. And yet they haven't played their trump card for certain victory. Shouldn't we assume there's some kind of intent behind that?"
"……."
The blue magical energy subsided quietly.
"Intent? Are you saying the humans deliberately want to lose?"
"That's exactly it! The humans are intentionally trying to lose."
"Huh?"
Vassago narrowed his refined brow and let out a raspy voice. Every expression he made was aristocratic.
"You would think that even if they lose the duel, it would only lower the morale of their troops, and that there's no reason to invite defeat — that's what you'd believe, my lord."
"……."
"But consider the opposite. The enemy may stand to gain something worth that sacrifice."
Vassago muttered in a low voice.
"……Damned. Jester, explain."
"It's simple. As you know, we are currently posing as the army of humanity."
The masses were sensitive to rumors. Batavia and the free cities had joined our ranks in droves. Could such a pretext really have had no effect on the enemy?
From their perspective, it was entirely possible that we truly were humanity's army. Anxiety must have spread far and wide.
"Here's the situation. Now, suppose we send a demon out for the duel. How would the enemy react? 'Ah, so they weren't the human army after all — they were the Demon Lord's army. Our suspicions weren't unfounded after all…' That's exactly how they'd take it."
I smiled brightly.
"Lord Vassago. That knight is a sacrifice."
"……."
"If we send a powerful demon to kill that knight, the enemy commander will immediately shout, 'Look! They are the Demon Lord's army. And yet we divided ourselves through suspicion. We sacrificed our own comrade. Now rise — let us avenge our fallen brother…….'"
Sacrificing one person to boost your own army's morale was remarkably common. The Hwarang of Gwanchang were a prime example. The knight standing on the field now was also young. There was no better candidate for a sacrificial pawn than a young person.
"There's no reason we need to play along with such an obvious ploy."
"……So what exactly are you proposing if we don't send a demon out?"
Vassago swallowed a curse and pressed on.
"Do we just back out of the duel? Our troops' morale will plummet to nothing."
"Hmm. As it happens, I have a card prepared for precisely this occasion."
I clapped my hands lightly.
"Daisy."
Daisy walked forward and knelt on one knee before us. The jet-black-haired girl wore her usual maid's uniform. She had been serving as my attendant all along. Were it not for the longsword and short dagger at her waist, she would have looked like a perfectly ordinary maid.
I smirked.
"You're a waste whose brains are made of sewage. A hopeless idiot and a cripple. But you should at least understand what the situation is right now."
"Yes, Father."
Daisy bowed her head and replied calmly.
"The pigs were chased out of their pen, but they've forgotten their place and are squealing to their heart's content on the plains. They're the kind of animals that would be content just to be let back into the warmth of their pen. Once you throw them a justification, they'll settle down."
"Heh."
Laughter spilled from my lips. Daisy was growing splendidly.
"You guessed right, you sow. Those squealing kinfolk of yours over there — you're just the right one for them. Think you can handle it?"
"I'll need a magical artifact that amplifies my voice."
I pulled a necklace-shaped artifact from inside my coat and tossed it. Thud — the necklace landed on the grass. Just as Daisy reached for it politely, I spoke.
"Pick it up with your mouth."
"......"
Daisy froze for a moment, but soon obeyed my command and prostrated herself on the ground. She clamped the necklace between her teeth. Right before Vassago and the demon commanders, she had her face shoved into the dirt like a dog. I smiled with satisfaction.
"Insolent slave. That's where you belong."
Just now, Daisy had deliberately used the metaphor of pigs. It was a small thing, but she'd been showing off a little. Where does a slave get off acting proud? I pointed that out, and whether she understood my intentions or not, Daisy silently submitted to the order.
"Move out."
"Yes. Father."
Daisy picked up the necklace in her mouth and slowly walked away.
As she headed toward the plain, Vassago spoke from beside me.
"......Unexpected. This is the first time I've seen you get emotional. Isn't she your adopted daughter?"
"There are various circumstances. She's capable, but the kind of child who might turn around and bite her master's hand. If I let my guard down for even a moment, she'll find her way into my head, and that would be troublesome."
I gave a wry smile.
"People are treacherous—treat them even a little well, and they'll forget their grudges. To keep relationships transparent, you have to be ruthless."
"Hmph. A fittingly trashy opinion."
The conversation died. We stared ahead in silence. The moment a girl in a maid's uniform appeared on the plain, soldiers on both sides erupted into loud murmurs. What was a child doing in a sacred duel? And wearing a maid's outfit, no less?
"......!"
The Frankish knight was visibly flustered.
Seeing Daisy approach, he held out his palm and shouted something. Probably along the lines of having no intention of fighting a human child like her. Meanwhile, Daisy walked forward silently, as if deaf. Finally, she reached the knight.
It was a single strike.
She drew her longsword and swung it upward, and in an instant, the heavy neck of the warhorse was severed. The knight lost his balance and tumbled from the mount. Daisy nimbly leaped into the air and drew a dagger from her hip. Then, as the knight fell, she drove the point precisely into his armpit.
"......"
"......"
A silence descended over the plain where the two armies faced each other.
It took three seconds for the knight to perish. From the carcass of the decapitated horse, blood sprayed like a fountain. The girl stood there, nonchalantly drenched in the gore as if caught in a rain shower. It was such an unnervingly beautiful scene it felt unreal.
She brought a pendant to her lips and spoke.
"I am a Frank from Raelia."
The girl's voice spread across the plain. It carried a thick Northern Frankish accent. To their enemy forces, comprised mostly of soldiers from the northwestern regions, the pronunciation was intimately familiar.
"My mother and father were slash-and-burn farmers. The mountains were the home of our village. But as fate often falls on such people, we were attacked by a band of Goblins and everyone was killed."
"......"
"When my mother was writhing in agony with her innards spilling out, no one came to help us. When my father held me in his arms and his head was cut off... no one helped us either."
Daisy stared directly at the human forces. A silent pressure emanated from the young girl.
"I am too foolish to know what justice is. However, I do know that if we allow the Demon Lord to take root in the heart of the continent once more, this same tragedy will repeat itself — not just once, but over and over again without end. Monsters will prosper, and humans will die writhing in agony. There is no way that constitutes justice. No. Absolutely not."
"……."
"People of the East. I do not resent you. But if you intend to stand by and watch as tragedy is sown across this continent — if that is what you would call so-called justice — then I will draw my sword without hesitation."
Daisy turned her back and brought her longsword down in a clean slash. Blood sprayed as the knight's head was severed. Daisy picked up the severed head and trudged back toward us.
Everyone on the plain — friend and foe alike — was struck speechless by the young girl's overwhelming presence.
Everyone, that is, except one person.
"Hahahaha! Would you look at that, Your Highness Vassago! The little one's quite something, isn't she! At the very least, someone has to be that impressive before I can call her my adopted daughter! Goes without saying, of course!"
Naturally, that someone was me.
I was slapping my hands together wildly, chattering away in excitement.
"A proud knight of the Empire, beheaded by a mere serving girl — there's no humiliation quite like it! I'm tempted to hire a bard right now and have them compose a comedy about it! No, seriously, what are you all doing? Give our brilliant human girl a round of applause for putting on such a spectacular show!"
"Ah, yes!"
The demon commanders snapped back to their senses. One by one, they began to applaud. The clapping spread rapidly to the common soldiers, and before long our entire force of four thousand was cheering in unison.
By now, the enemy's morale should have completely collapsed.
They had been utterly defeated in a duel by a girl barely into her youth. And furthermore, that girl was not a demon but a fellow human. It was practically a guarantee that we were the human army, not the Demon Lord's forces. Self-respect and justification — the Frank army had thrown both into the dirt.
Too bad for you, generals of Frank. You may have tried to rally your troops by sacrificing pawns, but on this side we have the absurd human weapon known as Hero candidate. This is no monster your petty tricks can handle.
"Father."
Daisy walked up to me and bowed low. She held the knight's severed head in both hands and offered it up to me.
"Well done. You handled yourself quite splendidly, didn't you?"
I dismounted from my warhorse and patted her on the head. Daisy simply lowered her head in silence. I let a smirk cross my lips.
"But what a worthless piece of trash he was. Selling out his own father and mother's names just to achieve his goal — truly admirable. I'd been underestimating you all this time."
"……."
"You used to struggle with everything you had to protect your family, and now you sell them off without a shred of guilt. I can only call that magnificent. You're a magnificent piece of trash, Daisy. Your beloved back in the territory is sure to be delighted."
Daisy raised her head.
Hatred and humiliation churned within eyes as black as obsidian. The "beloved in the territory" referred to none other than her older brother, Luke. I let a small laugh escape, satisfied by her emotions.
"You betrayed your family, and humanity along with it. Is there anywhere left for you to return to?"
"……."
"You've done well. Go rest in the tent."
Daisy bit her lip. Blood welled from her slender lips and trickled down. A voice strangled with rage leaked through the gaps of her teeth.
"……Yes. Father."
The girl turned and walked toward the tent at the rear. The demon soldiers greeted her with cheers, but the girl walked on expressionless, caring for nothing. I gazed after her retreating figure with satisfaction, then turned my head.
"Now, Lord Vassago. This is our chance! The enemy's morale has plummeted, and they've grown disillusioned with the very notion of fighting. If we can't toy with an army like that, we'll be the laughingstock. Please give the order to attack."
For some reason, Vassago was staring at me with narrowed eyes. He muttered as if letting out a sigh, carrying an air of having resolved something internally.
"……Like father, like daughter. Well. Would anyone dodge shit because it stinks? When it's filthy, you simply have to get out of the way on your own."
"Pardon?"
"Forget it."
Vassago shook his head slowly.
"All forces. Attack."
Our vanguard won the victory against the Frank army that day.
Of the three thousand enemy troops, roughly six hundred were killed. The death toll was surprisingly low — not because they fought well, but because they fled almost the moment the battle began. Thanks to that, our side suffered barely around a hundred casualties.
Needless to say, it was a crushing victory.