Beatrice Allereade clicked her tongue as she spurred on the horse that drew the carriage. At this rate, the horse would collapse and it still wouldn’t be enough to outrun the thing that pursued them. On the other hand, given how fast the creature behind them was closing the distance, it wouldn’t be long now until it caught them.
“Hnh... There’s nothing for it but to handle this myself, is there? Although...”
Beatrice bit her lip as she peered over her shoulder. No matter how she turned it over in her mind, she couldn’t imagine herself defeating that thing. It resembled a wolf, but she had reason to believe it was neither truly that nor a monster. Her group had already battled it once—strictly speaking, Beatrice herself had not, but her fellow knights who had been accompanying her on this journey had already faced and fallen to the creature. In a flash, it had disposed of three of the strongest in the kingdom—knights much stronger than Beatrice. How could she possibly hope to defeat it when they had failed? She hadn’t come on this journey for the purpose of fighting. Her Gift was much more suited to defense.
Beatrice’s “Chevalier” Gift strengthened her physical abilities used for defending others. However, its strength lay in oaths and contracts—its true strength was not revealed until she had sworn fealty to a liege. Until then, her Dexterity and Stamina stats were only increased by ten percent. After swearing an oath of fealty, this grew to twenty percent and would grow further based on how much danger her liege was in. In the event of a threat to her liege’s life, her stats could even double. Of course, things would ideally never come to that, but in the unfortunate event that they did, her Gift would be a valuable asset.
Beatrice had come along on this journey precisely in case of such an occurrence. She was the shield; the other three who had accompanied her were the swords. Now that those swords had been lost, however, the principle no longer applied. There was nothing left but to handle this herself...hence the dilemma she faced.
In a fight with the creature, she could see no outcome but an ignominious death. It was not that she was particularly afraid of dying here, but she did fear dying without fulfilling her purpose after already exposing her liege to danger. On the other hand, fighting alongside her liege would maximize the power of her Gift, allowing for at least a small possibility of victory...but no knight who had sworn an oath of fealty would ever consider such a thing. Better to die a chivalrous death than risk exposing her liege to danger.
On the other hand, to deliberately seek a chivalrous death would be nothing but self-indulgence. And so...
“I suppose there’s only one path forward,” Beatrice muttered, pretending to check on the situation behind them as she looked over her shoulder to quickly assess her liege’s state, who, sitting there in the carriage, seemed so small, looking just as a young girl her age should and nothing more. Of course, this was no surprise, as she had only recently come of age. She was surely beset by unwarranted thoughts of how this was all her fault. Beatrice had been in her service for ten years now; she could easily tell these things.
And so Beatrice made up her mind. She had resolved to give her life for her liege the moment she’d sworn an oath to her. Now, she resolved to personally send her liege off into an uncertain future. Even if the young woman survived, Beatrice couldn’t guarantee her continued safety. She might even meet her death. But Beatrice believed in her liege—though she might curl up, beset by unwanted thoughts, a powerful light lived in her eyes. Beatrice was sure she would be all right.
Determined to do what she must, Beatrice’s body welled with strength. Now that she had made up her mind, the rest happened quickly. She released her grip on the reins that controlled the sprinting horse and stood up, jumping from the driver’s box.
“Wha—?!”
For a moment, she glimpsed the shocked expression of her liege in the carriage to her side. Beatrice knew the girl would soon surmise her intentions and realize there was no other way.
Though Beatrice had relinquished the reins, the horse didn’t stop. Rather than continuing to bolt straight ahead, it moved as if it could hardly decide which direction to run in. Fortunately, the plains stretched out before them in all directions. Even her liege, who had no ability to guide a horse, could handle getting them to flee far away. What would happen after that, Beatrice didn’t know, but she had already decided to believe in her.
The moment Beatrice’s feet hit the ground, the creature caught up. Her plan was clear and simple: hold out long enough to allow her liege to escape. Even without the girl’s presence, Beatrice possessed superlative defensive capabilities. She didn’t truly believe that she could survive long enough to allow her liege to escape, but she wouldn’t be felled in an instant either. So long as she could buy enough time to increase the other’s chances of survival, that was enough.
Beatrice held her shield before her with her left hand and readied her sword with her right, maintaining a defensive stance while focusing intensely on her foe. The thing did indeed resemble a wolf, although having been granted an extended look at it now, she could see that it clearly was not. While it had been elaborately constructed, it appeared to be made of clay—some kind of golem. Of course, that had been clear enough when her comrade had slashed at it during their first encounter. She had seen it decapitated, and yet it had quickly returned to its original form. No living being could do that. Her comrade had let his guard down for a split second and the thing had jumped on him, taking, as if in revenge, a chunk out of his neck.
Beatrice didn’t know how her other two comrades had been killed. She had hurried her liege into the carriage, jumped into the driver’s seat, and flown from the scene, instinctively sensing how dire the situation was.
The present circumstances proved that her intuition had been on the mark. Another reason that Beatrice was surveying her foe’s approach was that she wasn’t sure how it might attack. In addition to buying time, appraising the creature’s capabilities was the obvious thing to do. The two comrades who had remained after the first knight was killed would not have allowed the event to make them careless, after all.
“Hm?”
As she observed the creature, what puzzled Beatrice was that it also seemed to be observing her. This thing ought to have attacked her the moment she’d jumped down from the carriage. It wouldn’t have been too surprising if her remaining comrades had managed to pose enough of a threat that it now carefully watched to see what she was capable of. Even so, the situation felt a little strange. Golems were only capable of following basic orders, but this thing seemed to be acting independently...in which case, it must have only looked like a golem, but...no, that wasn’t important. What mattered was why it was watching her.
“Huh?!”
Beatrice looked over her shoulder, searching for the source of the cry that had just reached her ears. It had not been a person. Unless her eyes were deceiving her, the two horses drawing the carriage had run far into the distance, where they had been pierced by something that had thrust out of the ground. Now they writhed in pain as their movements slowly pulled the carriage onto its side.
As she stared, wondering what on earth had happened, Beatrice braced her shield-bearing arm, waiting for the shock she was sure was soon to come.
“That thing must have done it somehow,” she thought...until a sudden pain in her arm stole her attention. “What...”
Beatrice reflexively returned her gaze to her shield-bearing arm, only to find that her shield had disappeared—or rather, it was lying in pieces on the ground.
“Impossible! That was a mithril shield!” she cried. It had been granted to her by the Kingdom to help her protect her liege. It was inconceivable that anything could shatter it so effortlessly.
“Guh!”
That brief moment of astonishment proved to be a fatal mistake. Beatrice felt as though she had lost part of her body as the strength in her legs vanished and she fell to the ground. Though she couldn’t see from her vantage point, the creature had bitten off about a third of her abdomen. Yet, most concerning of all was that she didn’t feel any pain. That could only mean that her body had already given up any hope of survival.
Even so, Beatrice didn’t let go. She couldn’t; that really would be an ignominious death. If she could at least manage one counterattack, buying even a little time, maybe she could die with pride...
“Hnh...”
As she gazed desperately upward, she saw the creature’s front legs—the claws that had rent her mithril shield—now mercilessly descending upon her. Dumbfounded, she could do nothing but await her death. But death didn’t come. At that very moment, the creature that was about to end her life was blown away.
“Wait... Beatrice?”
Before she even had a chance to wonder what had happened, Beatrice heard a voice... A voice that she should never have heard in this place, but that was nevertheless familiar.