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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: The Man of 1 in 100,000 (10)
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Lucas drew his sword and approached slowly. Ralph bravely cut into his path.
"Stop!"
"Hah! Now even this worthless punk dares to make a fool of me. You planning to play knight in front of a real one?"
Lucas swung his blade like swatting a fly. Ralph's wooden sword blocked the knight's steel.
Training wooden swords had iron cores inside for proper weight and balance. They were basically edgeless wood on the outside.
"Blocked it?"
Lucas scoffed and unleashed a barrage on Ralph. Thwack, crack, thwack, smack.
The look of utter contempt on Lucas's face vanished. A soldier blocking a knight's sword strikes? Unthinkable.
"You got something to back you up, huh?"
But Ralph held no advantage. He kept falling back.
It was a fight decided from the start. Even if Ralph seized a gap to strike Lucas.
"A knight in full plate is invincible on the battlefield!"
Ralph's iron-cored wooden sword couldn't even exploit the plate armor's so-called weak points at the joints.
Serena ignored the blood trickling from her nose and hurled a spell. Lucas battered the ice spike aside with his shield. The target was obvious, so no need to enlarge it like against the Minotaur.
"Ungrateful scum. A mad harlot like you ain't worth keepin' alive. I'll slaughter the lot of ya."
"You forsook knighthood first!"
"I'll play with you a bit before I kill ya."
Just as Lucas said. He was toying with Ralph. Attacks weren't landing anyway—just disarm the wooden sword and done.
"Urk!"
Ralph tried a joint lock, the one thing that might work, but even that needed an opponent in equal armor. At minimum, comparable weight.
A growing youth was far too slight against an adult knight.
Ralph's face crumpled under Lucas's gauntlet. He collapsed to the floor, staggering.
Serena chanted a mana bolt spell this time. The invisible lump of mana slammed into Lucas's chest. He didn't budge an inch.
"Idiot! This here's armor!"
Like punching a steel plate. To hurt him through it demanded far stronger magic.
Serena retreated step by step. Lucas mocked her.
"Who was it told ya the trap spots? You ain't that brain-dead to forget, right?"
Lucas had spotted early on that Ralph and Serena kept herding him toward traps.
'Damn bastard.'
Serena ground her teeth. She regretted not finishing Lucas off in one shot.
'What now? If he catches me, that creep won't make it quick. Suicide instead?'
No matter the pinch, she didn't want to kill herself. But factoring in Lucas's one-in-a-hundred-thousand scumbag nature, jumping into a trap to die might be better.
Whoosh!
As Serena seriously eyed a trap, Lucas whipped his gauntlet around.
Chrome—who they'd thought had fled unseen—hurled something from behind.
"Light it up!"
"Spiderwebs? Pathetic trick."
Chrome had lobbed clumps of spiderwebs scattered around the second floor. Lucas shook his hand to fling them off before they caught. The tough webs clung fast.
Even if he lit the web ball on his gauntlet, the fire would snuff quick with no real burn. Still, Serena cast the ignition spell as Chrome wanted.
The webs burst into flame. Lucas shrugged all high-and-mighty, snuffing it with his other hand.
"So, what's next?"
Lucas sneered and took a step. Serena, on guard, blinked. The angle of his step was off.
'What?'
Lucas noticed his own oddity too. He grimaced, flared his nostrils a few times, and shook his gauntlet roughly.
His violent shaking wafted web smoke even to Serena. She pinched her nose shut and went wide-eyed.
'Chrome! You mad old bat!'
"Hold yer breath!"
A familiar scent, different from mana herb. If mana herb clung to Serena's body, this stench permeated her father Crown Prince Kiban's.
A nightmare smell from her dreams. Serena's most hated stench.
'This is!'
"Drugs! Chrome, you a junkie?!"
"Don't smoke it meself, just sell! Sorry 'bout that!"
Not just any drugs. A vicious hallucinogen even the prince—numb to most from endless highs—craved.
So potent that even a whiff triggered brutal hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, loss of direction sense, headaches, nausea, dizziness, and tinnitus in non-addicts.
"Drugs...?"
Even Ralph, dragged along by Chrome, gaped in shock.
"Ugh."
Serena loathed drug peddlers because of her junkie dad. Memories of grieving Chrome's "death" rang hollow now.
"Truly, so... sorry...!"
After shoving Ralph clear of the hallucinogen smoke, Chrome jabbed her spear at Lucas's staggering face. Amid visions of multiples, he dodged with minimal motion.
"Thought you was just a thievin' old rat. But filthier... a drug peddler!"
Lucas hurled off his still-fuming gauntlet. Just a big arm swing, and the drug hit him hard—he clapped a hand over his mouth. Sticky drool oozed between his fingers.
"Effect wears off quick! Hit 'im now!"
Chrome thrust again; Lucas slashed the spear haft clean.
"Aaaagh!"
Ralph hauled himself up with all his might and charged Lucas. Serena instantly iced the floor. Lucas turned Ralph's trip attempt against him, grabbing and slamming him down.
"Urgh!"
"Filthy cur!"
Lucas booted the boy's gut, then bent to reclaim his dropped sword. Serena's ice arrow met his enlarged shield.
"Now's the time!"
Chrome leaped onto Lucas's bent back, throttling his neck with the spear haft. He strained to pry her off, but she clung with desperate strength.
"Wait—even you're in danger, Chrome!"
"Before it wears off!"
One eye only, target flailing wildly, and an ally latched on.
Serena whipped her single eye around, summoning focus she'd never tapped before.
"What I desire is a merciless arrow to pierce that damned bastard's skull!"
The ice arrow—smaller than a spike—streaked like lightning, piercing Lucas's left eye.
"Aaaargh!"
Relief sapped her strength? The spear haft choking him loosened a hair. Lucas yanked Chrome free and smashed her head-first into the floor.
A watermelon burst with blood spray.
"Chrome!"
Lucas crumpled beside her. Serena fired one more ice arrow into his head before rushing to Chrome.
"Groan... ."
Thankfully, Chrome lived. Half her face pulped against the floor, blood streaming from eyes, nose, mouth, ears—but still breathing.
"Chrome, you alright?"
"Lucas... ugh, potions... in pocket!"
Ralph scrambled over, rummaging Lucas's gear. Potions from the labyrinth, hoarded instead of offering to the princess.
As Serena shook to pour potion, Chrome rasped fading words to stop her.
"No... need... ."
"Chrome."
"Drug... peddler... dyin' pretty...?"
"Don't talk like that, Grandma Chrome."
"Better... kids live... than old bag... ."
"Someone who gets that was sellin' drugs?"
"Heh... sorry... ."
Rebuked by the kingdom's most infamous addict's daughter, the peddler just chuckled. Then fell silent.
"Sniff... Grandma... ."
Not long acquainted, but after fighting Lucas side-by-side, Ralph teared up.
Serena let out a long sigh and rose.
A princess had no tears to spare for a drug dealer. That would mock countless victims.
"Ralph, you drink this potion."
"I'm... sniff! Fine."
"Ain't your bones busted? Drink."
He'd crawled over, unable to stand. Even sans breaks, injuries hobbled him bad.
Low-grade potion might not cut it, but digging deeper in Lucas's pockets yielded a mid-grade. Serena handed it straight to Ralph without hesitation.
"Save this for the princess!"
"Who else would I give it to right now?"
Ralph wiped snot, gazed up pleading.
"Help me shed the armor 'n boots?"
Serena aided him out of his gear. He slathered potion on the broken spot, drank the rest.
Treatment done, Ralph reached for his brigandine. Serena raised a hand to halt.
"Ralph. I could stomach a man baiting himself. But I got no use for a knight baiting the weak."
"Same here. Ain't proper knighthood."
"No tellin' how far this labyrinth goes. Or when we exit."
"I know."
"If you're set to play bait—not on my order, but your own—hand me your sword."
Ralph bit his lip, rose, gripped Lucas's sword. He offered it hilt-first, deferential. Knelt on one knee before the princess.
"I am Grand Duchess Parkling, granddaughter of rightful sovereign King Harold II, eldest daughter of Crown Prince Kiban. You, Ralph Hanson—will you strive with me to escape this labyrinth?"
"Yes."
"Strive to shield the weak and uphold justice?"
"Yes."
"Leap first into peril, strive to save others before self?"
"Yes."
"Then it's done. Henceforth, you are Sir Ralph Hanson."
Serena tapped both his shoulders with the blade. Local rite called for slapping the face with the flat—but the sword weighed too much, so skipped.
"Rise, Sir Ralph Hanson."
He took the sword and sprang up. Knighted at last, yet his face stayed grim.
"Now what?"
"Search this floor. Head down to the next."
Ralph didn't ask how deep. He knew too. No one did.
"All of Sir Lucas Biron's gear is yours."
"Got it. What of Grandma Chrome's body? And Sir Lucas...?"
"Tell the first-floor folk, consult 'em. No fit spot or tools here... ."
Burial? No ground or gear. Cremation? Wrong spot too.
As Ralph stripped Lucas's plate, Serena feigned closed eyes while lifting her eyepatch over the left.
She had priority business.
[DRAW button blinking rapidly]
'Time for a draw.'
