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“WAIT, they’re actually struggling?”
I had thought that after everything was said and done, they’d still manage to win somehow, but both the Black Knights and the Red Knights had begun to withdraw. As for the Hundred attacking the center, they looked to be on the brink of total defeat.
“Your Majesty, this looks a bit bad, doesn’t it?” Luida asked with a frown as she stood by me. “Those idiots are going to die.”
Casualties were only natural in war, but thanks to the Hundred’s abnormal strength and Luida’s powerful restoration magic, there had been effectively no losses up until this point. However, now they were facing unprecedented difficulty.
“They really are going to die,” Maria said, standing while snuggling right up against me. For some reason, she had a look of ecstasy on her face. “If I heal them, my fame will surely grow. Just thinking about it makes me tingle with excitement.”
Incredible. She’s only thinking of herself.
As for me, I’d known everyone in the Hundred for a long time. I’d been hoping they’d get in a bit of a jam, but I never wanted them to die. Whatever else could be said about them, they had always stayed with me.
“How about I go do something kingly? Hey, guard Luida and Maria, will you?” I said, entrusting the two of them to the remaining knights at headquarters. Then, I rushed out to the front lines.
The Black Knights and the Red Knights looked like they would be able to escape on their horses, so I decided to save the Hundred in the center. I put on my helmet and got a good running start before making a great leap, landing right in the middle of the battlefield. Right away, I used all my strength to make a horizontal sweep with my sword, mowing down the enemy with a full-power Sonic Blade. In one stroke, I sent the Eylish soldiers deployed up front flying.
“He’s here! It’s Zero!”
“That bastard killed more than ten men with a single swing of his sword! He’s a monster!”
“Retreat! You’re gonna die!”
After the Eylish said whatever they wanted about me, they skittered away like scared spiders. Thanks to that, all the enemy soldiers around me were gone—but then I was showered with a torrent of spells. Each individual shot didn’t have much power, though, and they were downright adorable compared to the spells Frau fired at me for fun.
I concentrated mana in my palm, creating an invisible shield—Mana Barrier. It was like a simple magical barrier spell. The spells from the Eylish side crashed into it and dissipated like mist.
“He can block magic?! Is King Zero an actual demon or something?” the pompous-looking knight leading the Eylish army shouted.
How rude. I’m just a normal guy…though Mana Barrier is a skill that monsters use.
“Crossbow unit, focus your fire on King Zero!” the knight said, issuing a new order.
Crossbows? What are those again? I wondered, and as I did, a bunch of things that looked similar to arrows came flying at me with incredible speed.
“What’s this?” I said, catching one of them between two fingers. It was thicker and shorter than a regular arrow. I sent it whizzing back where it came from, and it buried itself in the head of one of the soldiers holding odd weapons that looked like bows turned horizontally, killing him.
“He caught a crossbow bolt with his fingers!”
“And he threw it back!”
“I knew it, King Zero is a monster!”
The soldiers with the strange weapons cut and run, each scrambling to be the first to get away. Apparently, those weapons were called crossbows. Come to think of it, I got the feeling I’d seen one before.
“Gah, I shall definitely defeat you, King Zero!” the knight spat, leading his soldiers to withdraw.
I could have chased after them, but more important was the bleak situation around me. The Hundred’s warriors were lying on the ground all over the place. Nearly all of them had been hit by those arrows. Looking closely, I could see that the projectiles had even penetrated armor. Those crossbows seemed to be quite powerful.
There were many I recognized among the fallen. I held one of them in my arms, and he spoke.
“Sorry, Zero…I’m sorry,” he said to me. “I’ve disgraced you…but, I’m truly grateful that I was able to meet you…” After that, his strength ebbed from his body, as if he had breathed his last.
“All this, just from getting hit by an arrow that was a bit fast?” I said after a few seconds of silence. I quickly became somber. The members of the Hundred had certainly been unrepentant meatheads, but they hadn’t been bad people. It was inevitable that their deaths would have affected me. Still, they had defeated many enemies before coming here. This was them getting their just desserts. Maybe, in a certain sense, going down fighting was what they had always wanted.
Regardless, this had been bound to happen eventually. As war drags on, people die. Maybe the Hundred had continued to seek conflict because they hadn’t fully understood that. Now that they had lost some of their own, they would probably reform their reckless tendency to start wars. This was a necessary sacrifice. I had to think that these men would serve as the foundation of a new peace—otherwise I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.
I sighed deeply, then reminisced about the dead. They had affectionately called me Zero, and eaten monsters together with me. I would have been lying if I’d said I wasn’t going to miss them.
However, that didn’t justify me taking revenge; if I did, the war would never end, no matter how much time passed. I couldn’t waste these sacrifices. This time for sure, I had to make sure there was peaceful negotiation…
As I immersed myself in those sentiments, someone passed by in front of me.
It was Maria.
She quietly stood in the center of what had been the battlefield. Then, slowly and clearly, as if she was singing, she began to give voice to a prayer. She even started to dance, just as she always did in the arena.
Huh? No way, is she going to use a restoration spell under these conditions? Hold on a second, if she does that now, she’s going to make life itself less precious…!