Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha wo Taosu Tameni Maou ni Shoukansaremashita~-Novel

Chapter 4 - The Mysterious Dark Knight Appears

The Comrade of the Hero, Sage Chiyuki.

「It’s just a bit more right, Chiyuki-senpai.」

Sasaki Rino, otherwise known as Rino, is saying that while dancing around me.

Rino loves to sing and dance and originally aimed to become a model to dance and sing in our world.

Could it be that the reason is because recently she’s aware of the fact that she’s being called as the goddess of dancing?

She becomes the center of attention wherever she goes since she keeps dancing while walking in the middle of the city.

The problem is she prefers a miniskirt-like attire.

Because of that there are many occasions in which she’s exposed to the indecent sight of many men.

When I point that out, she says that she doesn’t care about such things since she’s used to it; it seems the person herself doesn’t care about it.

Modelling is a line of work which no one will be able to do unless they get used to such gazes.

I definitely won’t be able to endure it if I was in her position.

「Yeah, it’s just a bit more, Rino-san.」

I’m nodding to Rino.

The demon king castle is just a little ahead.

We can go back to our original world once we defeat the demon king Modes who lives in that castle.

And put an end to this long journey.

「Yeah, this painful and long journey will end at last.」

Reiji’s saying so with a deep voice.

「That’s a lie, you seem to be the one who’s always enjoying this journey, aren’t you?」

「Did it look like that to you?」

When I tell him that, he laughs back.

For him, who was summoned as the hero of light, he might actually be enjoying all of what happened.

Or not, it’s not just him.

Rino and Nao were also enjoying this.

We came to this world around half year ago.

We were summoned by a woman called Rena who proclaimed herself as a goddess.

Rena made a request for us to defeat the demon king.

It was completely a manga-like situation.

To be honest, we were dissatisfied. What she did was a kidnapping. Definitely something unforgivable.

But, Rena told us that we couldn’t be back from this world.

Being asked by such a beautiful woman, Reiji easily agreed to help her and went to exterminate the demon king.

Due to that reason, the other girls were also involved with him.

But, in the end, I was the only one who’s dissatisfied with the situation; Reiji, Nao, Rino, and the others are overjoyed at being able to come to this game-like world.

And just like that, our adventure began.

I was anxious at first.

I was anxious whether we can live in this world.

But that worry ended in an instant.

We were strong in this world.

After we came to this world, our physical strengths had raised to an absurd level just like a superman.

According to my observations, the rise in our physical strength is in proportion of our own abilities in our original world.

Because, Reiji and Nao, who originally had the highest physical ability amongst us in our original world, possessed the highest physical ability after coming to this world.

And yet, even Sahoko, the owner of weakest physical ability amongst us, can easily toss several average adult males of this world.

Another thing is magic.

It seems that only a handful amount of the humans in this world can use magic.

And we, all of us can use this magic. Moreover, we can even use the highest level magic that can’t be used by the humans of this world.

By the way, the ranking of our amount of magical power is me, Sahoko and Reiji at the highest, and Nao is the least one amongst us.

I couldn’t understand the reason why we couldn’t use magic in our original world.

But regarding this magic, all of us couldn’t use similar type of magic.

I’m not very good at using thunder and flame magic like Nao and can’t win against healing magic of Sahoko. Instead, Rino and Sahoko can’t use magic such as transfer magic.

Rino is a spirit system magic user and Sahoko is a healing system magic user, as said by Nao in a game-like way. And then, I’m a magical power system magic user.

We, who can freely manipulating this kind of power became the strongest in the world.

Especially Reiji, his combat ability as the one who’s summoned as the hero of light is terrifying. Even if the five of us form a group, it is still not enough to defeat him.

According to Rena, it seems that his combat power alone is on par with the king of gods, Oudith.

Even if it is a dangerous place for girls like us, we can easily get over it thanks to Reiji.

This journey will be ending very soon.

I think it’s fine for us to be a little greedier when I think about it now.

Isn’t that natural since we’ll basically be sent back to our original world without even demanding some sort of remuneration?

Reiji couldn’t make a demand for remuneration since he readily accepted Rena request, but it’s still not too late even if we demand for remuneration later.

Maybe Reiji’s weakness for beauties will bite back at him sooner or later.

I think that it’ll be a good thing if he turns that kindness toward males too, but it seems he has no interest in the men.

According to what he says, a man must solve their own problems by themselves, thus he saves nothing but girls.

But from my eyes, seeing him saving those cute girls with pinpoint accuracy must be just my imagination right.

「I can see the demon king castle～」

Nao who had went to scout the situation has returned.

She’s the ace of track and field club of our academy who came along with us and her physical ability is on the same level as Reiji.

In spite of being called as the feral child of the academy, she’s actually a cute girl once you know her.

In game terms, her assigned job is Thief or ranger, so the matter of scouting like this is left to her.

「How is the situation, Nao-san?」

「Uh~n, there are no traps and they didn’t even strengthen their defenses with soldiers. I think it’s safe for us to advance」

「And yet it’s their last stronghold, isn’t that strange?」

「Are they staying inside in fear of us? 」

Rino’s saying that with an optimistic tone.

「Maybe it’s just as simple as there’s no soldier left to protect him, isn’t it? I mean, didn’t we just beat the one who called themself as the chivalric order of dark knights the other day. Despite their appearance, you might think that they’re the last ones………..」

Shirone’s saying so without self confidence.

Shirone’s home runs a kendo dojo, and she also learns kendo.

She’s already one of the strongest class swordsman of this world and she’s the next strongest after Reiji, if those amongst us fight without using magic.

When I see her figure when she fights, her lively swaying ponytail made it as if she’s dancing.

Thus, she wears a lightweight armor for ease of movement.

Reiji advised her to wear bikini armor, but as expected, she rejected that flat on the spot.

By the way, she’s saying about the chivalric order of dark knights who fought us four days ago.

Reiji took a different action at that time and the matter of us being cornered when we fought without Reiji is of great concern..

Especially the guy called Runfeld-or something who was acting as their leader was powerful; his swordsmanship was equal to Shirone, and have high magic resistance, we were being cornered.

Reiji, who noticed our situation, immediately took a U-turn and then rushed to save us. Runfeld ran away while barely keeping his dear life.

The chivalric order of dark knights was almost annihilated due to Reiji’s counter attack and only few of them managed to survive.

「I felt that we’re not the best, but………………」

Sahoko says that.

She’s the one who hates dispute the most amongst us.

She’s a gentle girl who will offer a healing for injury or disease whenever she has some free time.

She’s being referred as ‘the Saint of healing’.

「Yeah, they definitely don’t put any kind of resistance, and it’ll be bothersome if only weak guys come out to meet us」

I agree with Sahoko.

「Well, we should know about that very soon. Everyone, let’s go! ! 」

「「O~h!! 」」

Rino and Nao raise their voice of approval toward Reiji’s remark.

We’re advancing toward the demon king castle.

Few minutes later.

We arrived at the main gate of the castle without meeting any sort of trouble.

There are no troops. But, someone who wore jet-black armor was standing at that place.

「Dark…. Knight?」

It was a figure which closely resembled the dark knight we fought before.

In spite of being unable to see his face since his head is covered with helmet, it seems he’s not Runfeld.

But, why is he alone?

Everyone is tilting their head, except for me.

The dark knight who’s standing alone wasn’t our enemy.

What is that demon king thinking about.

The dark knight draws his sword.

「My name is dark knight Diehart! ! Hero Reiji, I request for a duel! ! 」

The Youth Who Became The Dark Knight, Kuroki.

「My name is dark knight Diehart! ! Hero Reiji, I request for a duel! ! 」

I stand in front of them and introduce myself while wearing the armor of dark knight that is wrapping around my body.

I make a sweeping motion with the sword in my hand.

It was a cursed sword which was given to me by Modes. I’m told that it’s sharpness varies depending on the magical power of its wielder.

The blade of the sword is black in color with several red patterns running across its surface.

The feeling of holding real sword is different from holding a shinai[i]. .

It was closer to the feeling when I held a katana back in japan.

This blade, a naked blade, was different from the drawn katana at that time, this sword might really kill people.

In the end, I couldn’t refuse Modes’ request.

I was just unable to refuse the request of his miserable self.

Moreover, I wanted to laugh at myself when I introduced myself as Diehart.

Diehart. That is the name of the villain of the anime which I saw a long time ago.

He’s a clown with uselessly high pride who is easily defeated by the hero.

That name is definitely fitting for the current me.

I called myself with the name of the villain in the anime since I don’t want anyone to notice that it was me, especially Shirone.

The helm given by Modes is the one that’s used as a defensive gear by the dark knight and is the type that covers my entire face.

I chose this one so that Shirone won’t recognize that it’s me.

It seems the helmet is equipped with the magic that won’t hinder my words in spite of wearing a helmet.

And then, this magic also slightly altered my normal voice.

My usual voice will be heard as a different voice by the other party as long as I wear this helmet.

And, there were red gems attached on the eyes part of this helmet. It seems the effect is to protect my eyes from the magic that will affect my vision.

Moreover, in spite of the red gem covering the eyes, my field of vision is wider than usual because of magic.

I can see them from behind this helmet.

The one with fascinating, long and beautiful hair is Mizuouji Chiyuki.

The soothing beauty who’s Reiji childhood friend is Yoshino Sahoko.

One of the two junior, a model, Sasaki Rino.

The other one is the feral child of the academy and also the ace of track and field club, Todoroki Naomi.

And then, my childhood friend, Akamine Shirone.

All of them form an army of beauties. They’re surrounding Reiji.

Shirone’s standing beside Reiji.

To be honest, I didn’t want to see her standing beside Reiji.

That’s why I didn’t want to see it.

Never did I think that I’ll see that scene today.

I look at Reiji.

Golden patterns are engraved on top of his pure white armor.

He is wearing a golden circlet with a blue gem embedded on it on his head.

There’s a luxurious-looking crimson mantel attached to his back.

That was exactly the ideal figure of the hero of light who’s summoned by the goddess.

To be honest, I feel that he’s cool.

On the other hand, I’m the underling of the demon king. Moreover, I’m standing alone without any comrade beside me.

What the hell is with these differences. This tragic situation made me want to cry.

「Everyone, fall back」

As expected, Reiji’s telling the girls to fall back.

It seems he’ll grant my one-on-one match request.

I feel great pressure as I stand before him.

Now, I’m starting to regret my decision.

Why the hell am I not showing any refusal.

This is not a match but a battle to death.

And yet, I don’t have the resolution to die.

I’m burdened by fear.

I only have a feeling of being slaughtered miserably.

Fool, I’m such a big idiot.

Even at this moment, I can still throw away my sword and then beg for forgiveness from my opponent.

But, why do I keep tightening the grip on my sword.

Reiji’s also drawing his sword.

His sword blade is exuding brilliant light. It seems that my opponent also has a magic sword in his possession.

「I’ll end this in one attack」

Reiji let out a refreshing smile. That smile is the form of his absolute confidence in the fact that he absolutely won’t lose.

This will be our second fight. I think that his smile is similar to his smile during our first match.

We face against each other for several seconds.

「If you’re not going to come, I’ll come to you!! 」

The first to move is Reiji.

Reiji kicks the ground and instantly closes the distance between us. His speed is far more higher than Runfeld.

But, I can see that his movement isn’t that much different from that time.

Reiji suddenly vanished when he’s right in front of me.

I also anticipated that move. It was the same move which defeated me.

I hold my sword in my right hand.

A shockwave is transmitted to the swordblade. I parried Reiji’s attack with my sword by turning my wrist and turning my waist while shuffling my feet.

Though Reiji stance is crumbled due to that―

「Oops!! 」

One’s stance usually will crumble if they’re put in the same situation as him. That Reiji regained his stance with his self-styled rotation is…

Truly a monkey-like movement. Just what kind of reflexes does he have in him?

When Reiji regained his balance, he’s coming to attack from the front.

I won’t take that attack from the front; I parry it by turning my sword and then side stepped with sliding movement in order to not destroy my center of gravity.

The sliding movement on the ground[i] is something that I just learned recently after such long and arduous training.

Reiji, whose balance is crumbled, turns to the side.

Just like that, our blades interlock again.

Everytime our blades interlock, the inside of my head’s becoming pure white.

The sound of our swords clashing at each other is resounding loud and clear.

「Kuh!! 」

And then, during who-knows-how-many-of Reiji attack is coming at me.

It was a sloppy attack which is coming with an impatient voice.

I just naturally swing my sword while dodging that sloppy attack at the last moment.

The feeling of my sword tearing something is being transmitted to my hand.

I can feel as if the time stopped at that moment.

The sword that I swung tore Reiji’s body from his right shoulder all the way to his left waist.

It might be a fatal wound and yet, it couldn’t slice his body in two.

Blood is bursting out from his wounds.

「E~h …….」

Reiji’s face possessed a disbelieving look while he looked at his own body.

And then, slowly falling forward.

「Reiji-kun!! 」

「Rei-kun!! ! 」

「Reiji-senpai!! ! 」

「Reiji-kun!! 」

「Reiji-kun!! ! 」

Five screams resounded at the same time.

The girls make their move.

I retreat to the back as I feel their killing intents.

That moment, a gigantic lump of fire came crashing down on the place where I was standing a moment ago.

Before I knew, a giant from that gigantic fireball is standing in front of me.

Standing on it’s side is Sasaki Rino.

「Go, king of flame!! ! 」

When she screamed, that flame giant comes to attack me.

I, who feel the incoming danger, stretch my left-hand which isn’t holding my sword to the front.

「O Black Flame!! ! 」

The black flame coming out from my hand protected me from the attack of that giant.

It’s the only magic that I remembered before this fight.

「Rei-kun!! Heal the wound, ART OF HEALING」

Yoshino Sahoko is rushing to the side of the collapsed Reiji.

「Everyone! ! Gather at Reiji-kun’s side! ! 」

The girls are standing on Reiji’s side on hearing the panicking voice of Mizuouji Chiyuki.

「Transfer（TELEPORT）!! 」

The attack of flame giant stopped almost at the same time as I heard Chiyuki voice.

Thus, I couldn’t see the trace of people in front of me just a while ago.

「Have I won…………」

My body is trembling as I muttered those words.

Just like that, I fall on my knees.