「Don’t go from the front! Split to the sides and counter-attack!」
‘Guoooon’- Ringing out through the ground, it was a low and heavy cry which shook the core of the body. The lead colored body was 5 meters long and even it’s height exceeded 2 meters, and moreover its feature was the long, thick and rustic horn emerging from its head, from which its name originated. Horn Head was a frenzied monster which would charge using its horn and head hardened to resemble stone, as its weapon. It’s appearance was similar to a large rhino wearing iron armor.
「P, please wait! It’s dangerous!」
「Anymore than this is a waste of time. Make all those guys fall back. They’ll be nothing but a nuisance」
「It is said that weaker the dog, louder it howls」
「If I’m not mistaken, blacksmiths will swarm around this guy’s horn. Well, it’ll only become loose change, but retrieve it」
Anger was present in those eyes. As though it wanted to strike with its rage, it howled thrice.
「T, that is!?」
Towards the Horn Head’s change, a single soldier raised a surprised voice. A Golden yellow light surrounded its huge body. That was a magic formation.
With a crackling sound, lightning clad the sword held by Harold.
「That’s it for your useless struggle」
The sword which was clad with so much electricity that one would think it that the sword blade was shining, Harold swung it down without any hesitation.
「『Thunderbird』」
「With this, there’s nothing more to do here. Quickly finish tidying up」
Without getting a single injury, without even breaking a sweat, Harold who had defeated a huge monster acted as though it was natural and returned back to the carriage. It meant that he had left retrieving the horn and disposing the corpse to them.
「First squad, retrieve the horn. The remaining squads, dispose the corpse. Work quickly! It’s a job suitable for us who bothered Harold-sama for something like this!」
So as to tighten the air that had loosened by a bit, orders from the captain flew out. Among the soldiers who were moving swiftly after receiving those orders, a new recruit in the first squad, which had been given the comparatively easy job of retrieving the horn, still couldn’t believe the scene he had just seen and asked his senior.
「Was Harold-sama so strong?」
「Ah, come to think of it, it’s the first time for you, huh」
‘Then it’s no wonder that you would be dumbfounded at that scene’, saying that, the questioned soldier, Elias, smiled wryly.
「From about 3 years ago, Harold-sama started accompanying the subjugation expeditions. At that time itself, he was quite strong but now, it’s as you can see」
「But is it alright? Even if he is strong, he is still the heir to the Stokes family, so if by some chance he were to get injured…………」
「Well, Captian’s, and some other people’s heads would fly. Physically」
「That’s not at all fine……….」
「That’s not the case. Eventually, even you’ll understand」
(I’ve acquired enough combat experience against the monsters that come out in this area. If possible, I want the expedition to go more farther, but I’ve to make sure that nobody gets injured. There’s still a huge amount of monsters that I still haven’t encountered so I want to collect the data quickly)
Harold, who had returned to the Stokes mansion after finishing the expedition which took about 2 weeks, without even sparing much time to recover from his fatigue, jumped onto the carriage returning to the Sumeragi territory with Tasuku. Regarding this, his parents had conveniently interpreted it as him being passionate about Erika. His stomach became heavy thinking about what kind of reaction those 2 would have when this engagement was annulled, but thinking,’what will happen, will happen’, he decided to forget about it.
「How were the negotiations?」
「They advanced without any issues. With this, we can seriously start working towards propagating it」
「To think the negotiations would go so easily」
Although it wasn’t something that the perpetrator who had devised everything should have said, he involuntarily sighed thinking of what a careless decision his father had made. And towards such a Harold, Tasuku saying, ‘That’s right’, started talking about a new topic.
「There’s a message from Itsuki to you」
「Is it another bout?」
「Ahaha, well, habitually without omitting, there is that too, but this time, there’s one more thing. ‘How about participating in the fighting tournament in Delfit?’, was his invitation」
He remembered about Delfit, and also the fighting tournament. Because in the narrative of 『Brave Hearts』, there was an event of winning in Delfit’s fighting tournament.
(That was also one way to fight against human rival characters. It’s also fine to not seriously try to kill each other………)
This meant that it was a huge chance to obtain new combat experience. It was the best bait to fish the current Harold with.
「………Interesting. I’ll participate」
And so, Harold’s participation in the fighting tournament was determined.
