A Maiden’s Unwanted Heroic Epic

Chapter 241: A Maiden’s Unwanted Heroic Epic

***Arc 10 One Who Doesn't Acknowledge, Chapter 241 A Maiden’s Unwanted Heroic Epic***

Ledo had brought 50,000 soldiers with him.

On the left wing, 10,000 soldiers for detouring flanking attack from the north targeting the enemy’s main camp.

On the right wing, 15,000 soldiers for a large-scale attack from the river targeting the enemy’s rear.

If it was Alberinea, she would surely step into the forest.

Their move was based on that assumption.

No matter how great Alberan was, there was a limit to the speed at which information could be transmitted.

In this invasion that prioritized speed, the enemy wouldn’t be able to prepare for a perfect defense.

At most, the one that would come were just a few of the army.

Considering their inferior forces, Ledo didn't expect for direct confrontation in the forest. Instead, he decided to adopt a hit-and-run tactic to stop their initial advance.

Ledo wanted to create a situation where he and Alberinea would directly fight each other.

He planned to target the main camp from the side, disrupt the rear, and lure the enemy's main camp out directly in front of Ledo.

According to the information gathered, Alberinea was an extremely aggressive commander who favored decapitation headhunting the enemy’s commander.

Surrounded like that, if Ledo, the general, appeared in the front, there was a high probability that she would launch a counterattack.

The enemy's main attack――Kolkis Argand's judgement.

High control and command ability of enemy the left wing.

There was a slight discrepancy in his predictions, but if Alberinea was here, things should proceed as expected.

Therefore, Ledo didn't think this situation was that bad.

His miscalculation was that the person who led the Alberinea army was not Alberinea, but the kingdom's marshal Selene Christand, but he never noticed this miscalculation.

"...What are they thinking?"

The place where Alberinea once fought against Aurugorn Hilkintos.

Although it was sandwiched between a forest to the north and a river to the south, there was a wide grassland in the sea of trees.

The Alberinea's army, forming two corps of about 10,000 soldiers, was confidently positioned there.

And at the forefront was a girl with long silver hair, sitting on a jade-colored tiger.

It was the first time Ledo had seen her, but he had no doubt that it was her.

She had a small body even from a distance, and wore a fluttering cloak that could be grabbed in the event of a melee.

Her floating appearance was completely unsuitable for the battlefield.

No, that was probably not the only reason why she looks floating.

The moment he stepped out of the forest path and stood here, he felt an inexplicable pressure on his entire body.

Those 10,000――Was not like the line of battle earlier, set up by Kolkis Argand and his warriors, they were forming naturally in awe of the girl alone at the front.

"How convenient. ...Form battle formation."

“Ha!”

Not trembling like a warrior—no, not like when facing Felworth Keithriton or Kolkis Argand.

There was no overwhelming blood boiling in the face of revenge.

Rather, it felt like cold water was poured into his boiling blood.

Ledo involuntarily looked at his trembling palms.

‘――Am I scared?’

He asked himself, scanning the surroundings.

The soldiers around him also raised their voices and started forming battle lines.

However, something was off.

Something was going awry, their voices were slightly strained.

Or perhaps, they were exerting too much force.

It was as if they were suppressing fear with determination.

Ledo wasn't the only one trembling.

What Alberinea took was an action that was too difficult to understand.

The northern corps is doing well to holding back their offensive.

It would probably have taken some time for those detouring from the south to engage the enemy's rear.

However, that was only for a short time.

For the Alberinea army's main camp, they should have retreated during this time.

Whether they aimed for a counterattack or retaliation, it was essential to at least show a ‘pretense of withdrawing’.

Especially in an environment where the numerical advantage in the forest made it difficult to use surprise attacks, the significance of their actions became apparent only when the large army faced a real threat.

It would have been foolish to conduct a brazen frontal battle in such an open place.

It would be great if they had superior military strength, but both locally and overall, they were at a huge disadvantage.

Even if they were to take this kind of action, the enemy should prepare at the exit to this space where Ledo and his army were currently standing.

There was no tactical sense in forming such a ridiculous line of battle, facing each other with the bridge behind Ledo.

Now that it had become like this, it had become impossible for Alberinea's main camp to completely retreat.

Tactically and strategically, it was incomprehensible.

No, that was probably why it was so eerie.

Now, in order for the Alberinea army to leave this forest safely, it has become essential for them to defeat these 25,000 troops led by Ledo.

In other words, Alberinea intends to crush Ledo from now on with less than half its number.

It was mad and reckless.

Ledo had both wings took a detour. There were no reports of ambushes.

They couldn't see the iron golems that were said to have been used in the battles with Gulshan and Elsren.

No matter how he looked at it, it didn't make sense.

However, the sight of Alberinea in front of them――just watching form as they formed battle line without any instructions, gives them a sense of inexplicable fear.

――It felt as if everything in this space was in the stomach of a huge creature.

The dominance was theirs, the advantage was also theirs.

But regardless of such logic, a heavy air clung to their body.

“Alberinea, what are you…?”

"I don't know. But be careful. At least is means there’s a good chance of winning from her pint of view.”

Ledo had no choice but to answer the question.

At least if Ledo was in the opposite position, it seemed there was no way to turn the situation around from there.

Even if you disregarded victory or defeat, this would only further improve the advantage of their side, there seemed to be no advantage for Alberinea.

And the same goes for the soldiers she lead.

Confusion seemed to exist not only on Ledo's side, but also on Alberan's soldiers.

In such a situation, they simply watch silently as the superior enemy forces formed their battle lines.

This clearly deviated from the logic of military tactics.

It didn't even exist in the original plan.

To the Alberan soldiers, all that was conveyed to them in this short time was the information that Alberinea had a secret plan.

The soldiers of Alberan couldn't help but look at each other in the heavy atmosphere――but they didn't disobey orders, and the reason they formed a battle line like this was the result of their training and experience.

They knew very well what kind of being Alberinea was.

This seemingly reckless behavior was by no means the first time they have had experienced.

Opinions were divided about her personality, but at least there was no one in this army who doubted her overwhelming strength and abilities.

Alberinea easily defeated Gulshan, Elderant, Elsren――the invasion that everyone felt despair over.

Her power was beyond doubt, and she challenged the god-like ancient dragon, allowed their Mana (True Name), and won friendship. She was truly a living myth.

Therefore, they looked at Alberinea with a slight awe and eyes full of strong expectations.

And, paying no heed to their gaze, Alberinea begins to move.

When Alberinea saw that the battle line of the Vezrea army was mostly completed, she made the Suiko walk.

The soldiers moved slowly and looked at each other, wondering if it were greeting the start of the war, but after walking a short distance, the Suiko stopped in the middle of both armies.

Then, Alberinea cut off the two large bags that were carried around the Suiko’s waist with her curved sword, opened it violently to the surrounding.

Scattered across the grassland were countless magic crystals.

With that, the Suiko, yawned and thinking that the work was over, turned away from the place and headed towards Alberan's main camp.

Then, just as the Suiko jumped over the line of battle, the girl took one of them in her hands and smashed it.

With a high-pitched sound, the hard magic crystal turned into a blue and dense magical power that even those without magical power could detect, and all of the magical power generated from the first magic crystal was transferred into the girl's hands.

In compressed time, mere curves of light intersected and parted.

The three-dimensional blue geometric pattern was like a flame on the girl's hand.

One could say it was a kind of arithmetic circuit.

A virtual brain that took the girl's thoughts that transcend even time to even greater heights.

What it signifies was just one law and logic.

To many, it would have looked like a dance or something.

As if a shrine maiden were bringing down a god upon herself.

Or as if she were stepping into that realm herself.

As she spun around as if dancing, the girl's cloak and her long hair swayed, and all the magic crystals scattered on the grassland shattered.

――Along with a hard chain that shook the heavens, the girl was surrounded by blue flames and blue curves.

"That……"

Murmurs arose from both sides.

At least there was no one here who could tell what it was or what she was doing.

It was a collection of magical circles that were as delicate and beautiful were works of art, and horrifyingly numerous.

Her long silver hair, like two tails, swayed from side to side even though there was no wind, and her cloak flutered.

A blue light flew around her, and within it Alberinea held her hand above her head.

The blue light gathered on the girl's small palm, change shape, and emitted a dazzling light.

The light was much longer than the girl's height, and a sound like the crackling air echoed in all directions around her.

To describe it, it was something like a spear.

――Or perhaps it was the lightning itself.

It was the spear through which the Thunder God showed Its wrath, a lance of storms that would engulf and burn everything in the lower world.

What clearly separated God and humans, heaven and earth.

The girl who grasped the tremendous power ran lightly, simply pushing the violence in her hands forward.

No one was able to react to the approaching girl and her spear.

Not the apprentice who had never killed a person.

Not the masters who had dedicated their life to martial arts like a monk.

Not even the renown hero in that society.

Indiscriminately, unreserved, and irrationally.

“――――”

A flash of light came before the roar and filled the heavens and earth, turning everything into nothingness.

A flash of light that pierced the left flank of the Vezrea Army's battle line raised a pillar of fire that scorched the sky, and a beat later, a roar shook the air and the earth.

Everyone present was stunned and stopped moving.

When the flash disappears and the smoke cleared a moment later, there was earth that had been gouged out and melted.

Naturally, the thousands of soldiers on the left wing who had formed a battle line had disappeared.

No, there was some remnants of it, like rain falling from the sky.

If they were lucky, they might have been allowed to fall to the ground with parts of their body still intact.

What is certain is that everyone who was there at center of explosion, from ordinary soldiers to famous heroes, ended the lives that they had accumulated at that moment.

The girl moved naturally and without hesitation, violence was in her hands.

Her second lightning spear was aimed the battle line of the right wing.

The same scene from before was reenacted, with a mist of evaporating body fluids and carbonized and molten flesh falling onto the ground a little later.

Alberinea's warriors still remained stiff, staring at the scene in shock.

"Hie! ――Retreat! Fall back!!"

In a world where time has stopped, the warriors of the Vezrea army were the first to move.

The difference in reaction was natural.

Because the clear death and violence was directed only to their side.

This place was a world ruled by only one law and logic.

Everyone understood that it would be foolhardy to confront this.

Just as there was no one who would raise their sword or shield against a storm, this could be called a natural providence.

No matter how many forces they gathered, no matter how many formations they created, no matter how harsh the training they underwent, or how much effort they put into

In the end, they were truly weak creatures who had no means of resisting the will of God.

There were some who couldn’t accept reality and was left standing still.

After being blown away, some of them crouched down, barely able to catch their breath.

Naturally, many of those who survived began to retreat, and even the brave warriors who were supposed to be in command shouted and ordered a retreat on their own without even waiting for instructions from the general.

――In this place, Alberinea was the only god.

With two spears, the battle was decided, but regardless, Alberinea produced a third spear and threw it directly in front.

It was like kicking a pebble along the road, and there was no particular meaning behind it.

Even if she had just walked, they would have cleared a path and run away from her.

She knew that, but it didn't matter.

She threw it. A pillar of fire went up. Another two to three thousand lives disappear.

To her it seemed ‘something’ was in the way, and with that light feeling she took thousands of lives effortlessly.

The ultimate in logic that someone called a genius could finally weave after spending hundreds of years.

In the blink of an eye, calculated and woven, the spear was an art of theoretical limits incomparable to the breath of a dragon, an efficiently executed death itself.

The lightning spear, which pierces and disintegrates battle lines at random, was a violence too powerful for an individual to possess, yet she had no hesitation or fear in using it.

Everything that met her eyes seemed unpleasant, actively obstructing her.

That alone was enough for her to kill them all.

To her, this world was full of things that didn't matter.

She was not interested in their lives, nor was she interested in what efforts they had made to be where they were, what good deeds they had done, and what evil deeds they had done.

Everything they had accumulated up to that point was equally worthless to her.

Her balance scale would not waver in the slightest, no matter how many thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of millions of their lives were added up.

She had been that way since her birth and continued to be so.

――Born as a princess of a kingdom, she was born with an abnormality.

The girl moved forward without paying attention to everything she has killed.

She was surrounded by countless blue magical circles, her cloak was fluterring, and her two long silver hairs, tied with pale crimson garlands, swung from side to side.

She was not even running.

The blue curve on the girl's back.

The magic generated wings and pushed her body up into the air.

She lightly jumped over the hole in the battle line that she had created pointlessly and landed.

The enemies main camp was right in front of her――and seeing that the supreme commander was not running away, she walked forward.

"...Are you the supreme commander?"

In a daze, she addressed the young man holding a huge sword, continuing her approach without stopping. She wasn't particularly seeking an answer.

All she needed to do was kill them all, regardless of the answer.

"......,that’s right."

The young man――Ledo Rani held his giant sword as if dragging it and looked at the soldiers on either side of him.

Despite this situation, the soldiers nodded and killed their fear.

Everyone now knew without a shadow of a doubt that they would die together with this commander.

They spread out and took the left and right sides of the girl who was walking towards them.

Everyone was now working solely to give meaning to their death.

"Shelna's enemy...I'll take your life, Alberinea!!"

When Ledo shouted and charged in, Krische on the other hand stopped.

She merely glanced at the soldiers on her left and right――and that was it.

The blue curves that had been floating ran like lightning towards them, reaching their chests or the magic crystals they held.

The last thing they saw was the lifeless purple eyes that seemed endlessly cold.

――In an instant, a blue light enveloped them, and with an explosive sound, flesh and blood exploded and scattered.

Without doing anything, their existence simply disappears.

If one had to give a reason, it would be because they went against the only law and logic.

It was a death that left no room for further discussion.

Ledo was no longer shaken by the tragic death of his comrade with whom he had fought for many years, and even by the fact that he had lost everything he needed to win.

He swung the sword, unleashing a slash as if wringing out everything he had built up over the years.

The girl, with a slight movement of her upper body, easily evaded it.

She continued to dodge the subsequent strikes, each one coming closer to her like the thickness of a piece of paper.

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth, seventh, eighth——everything Ledo had built up in the art of war, the girl simply avoided.

It was a battle that could not be called a battle, evident to anyone who witnessed it.

What faced each other were not child and adult, is was only a single law.

A blade that will never reach.

There is a gap between heaven and earth that could never be crossed, even if that person was a warrior or possessed the highest level of martial arts.

There is an absolute rift in power that it would be presumptuous to even compare them to one another.

That thing, should be called a mere providence.

Frozen purple eyes stared intently at Ledo, who was swinging his sword at herself.

For Ledo, it felt like he was facing a shadow that he could never cut down.

He realized that the power he had cultivated through the hellish battlefield was worthless in front of the girl.

"Umm"

The girl calmly dodged his sword and tilted her head expressionlessly.

It was an eerie gesture, like a doll.

“Could it be, is this the end?”

Using all the magic in his body, he grasped all the power generated by the giant sword.

He tried to hit her with such violence that his own body was torn to shreds.

His sword was now producing speeds that exceeded even Ledo's perception.

However, the girl still dodged it, looked at Ledo, and pulled out her curved sword.

"!?"

Sliding her blade into the giant sword.

She hit Ledo's blade diagonally, making a small dent in the blade, and then swung it out.

It was an eerily elegant and precise sword swing.

The giant sword, inherited from his father, was cut in half by the girl's small curved sword, and Ledo suddenly loses its inertia and fell down to his knee.

‘――I praise you as a warrior. But that's precisely why I pity you. ...You won't gain anything.’

Those words came to his mind.

What was in front of him was someone that no matter how hard one tried, there was no way anyone could reach her.

"When you say an enemy, do you mean revenge from the previous battle?"

The girl's steel-reinforced boots kicked up Ledo's stomach as he fell down.

The power was unimaginable from her slender and petite physique――the blow that pierced through his abdominal muscles destroyed the internal organs, and his muscular body, floated up along with a dull sound.

"...But why did you attack when you're so weak?"

Ledo coughed blood as he holds his left side and stood up.

Still he tried to slam his bare fist into the girl.

"Gah-"

“So that this doesn’t happen, Krische…”

The girl's curved sword easily severed the base of his arm.

And at the same time, she kicked his body and made him fall.

"...Even though you're so weak, Bery is in trouble, and you get in Krische’s way."

The girl was not exposed to even a single drop of blood.

"Besides, you were the ones who attacked in the first place..."

The girl twisted her beautiful face and held her forehead.

Then she stomps on Ledo's remaining left arm.

"...Ah, it's kind of irritating."

Ledo looked at the girl who was trying to kill him.

Shelna's body didn't even have any scratches from the slashing, it was clean.

The battle was probably one-sided.

――It was a scene she had saw alone.

“She...la”

"……Enough"

As he tried to say something, Krische easily cut his neck in half.

Then she grabbed the head, stuck the neck through the tip of the flag that had just been rolling, stuck it to the ground, and turned towards Alberan's army.

Selene, Kolkis, and Bagil.

Even the commander couldn't move or even make a sound when they saw that scene, and if that was the case, so were the soldiers.

Among them, a commander wearing black armor shouted out the victory of the great Alverinea before anyone else.

He too froze――it was merely a voice he raised in an instant to ascertain victory, to prevent Alberinea, whom he admired, from committing any more slaughter.

The warriors in black armor responded, and the soldiers raised their voices as well.

What many of them feel about Alberinea's power is awe and reverence that could be called fear.

Literally, one person won against an army.

There had been many people in the past who have been called Gods of War, etc., but it was impossible for anyone other than the girl in front of them to be true to those words.

If it was spoken, it was a kind of myth, a heroic tale.

The fairy tales that they had known as fantasies filled with vanity when they grew up were now reality in front of their eyes.

A child abandoned by the royal family was picked up by a hero, became a warrior, became a hero, and even reached the realm of gods.

They needed a way to come to terms with everything that was unrealistic that had just happened in front of them.

That was why they trembled and loudly praised the hero Alberinea to the heavens.

The Child of God, guided by destiny.

A born hero.

What was needed in order to accept her immense individuality was faith, and their voice simply resonates as if to suppress the fear of the abnormality that she was.

The girl, with cold eyes, listened to the cheers.

She didn't seek praise, honor, or faith, none of it.

All she thought about was the woman waiting for her return.

Needless to say, the battle ended shortly thereafter.

The girl, who left everything to her older sister and her subordinates, headed for the capital with the Suiko, running.

She sometimes clutched the small bag around her neck.

For her, it was more important than anything else――a promise.

She did her best to the very limit, but she was still anxious.

However, when she returned this candy to her as usual, she was finally able to find some relief.

In just a few moments, her wish will come true.

While she was helplessly resentful of them getting in her way, she tried to imagine her smile as much as possible, and tried not to think about it, forgetting that she on the battlefield and thinking only about her.

Kiss her and apologize.

Then, she would reassure her that it would only be a little while longer.

When all was said and done, things would be the same as before.

They would continue their daily life as usual, as if nothing changed.

That was all that girl wanted, and she wanted to do so many things that would make her happy so that she could forget all the pain she was going through.

The girl believed that was why she was here and she had no doubts about that.

The girl's place was not on the battlefield, but in the estate where she was waiting.

Once the royal capital was in sight, she pushed her pet, and hurried along while apologizing.

And so she ran through the royal capital like the wind, in front of the familiar mansion.

She took the bag from around her neck and stepped into her room from her balcony, not even sparing time to enter through her front door.

―However there was no one on the bed, only a servant with black hair cut to shoulder length.

When the servant saw the girl appeared, she was dumbfounded, then contorted her face, covered her face with her hands, and fell to her knees.

“――――”

The girl asked timidly, feeling her imagination flicker, something she didn't want to think about.

Contrary to her faint hopes, the servant shook her head.

The pouch in her hand fell onto the floor.

Unable to pick it up, she just stood there in a daze.

As if time had stopped, as if temperature had been lost.

The world had lost its color and her thoughts refused understood it.

Wobbling, her eyes swimming around.

The girl pressed her own forehead and shook her head.

Unwilling to admit that the irrecoverable time, the most precious thing in this world, was lost to her.

The loud voices of praise from the battlefield echoed in her head, like ringing in her ears.

As if afraid of the girl, fearing her.

――The voices that loudly praised the girl's unwanted heroic epic.