Chapter 81: Black Knight Aarg (3)

Why, why can both my younger sister and younger brother do what I could not.

Why am I this inferior.

Why—can I not discard this ugly jealousy.

(Please, stop. If you show me that kind of figure...)

——If.

If at that time I had been able to regain my reason like my younger brother.

I might have been able to save the princess with these hands—I end up thinking that.

If I could have done that, surely everything would have gone well, I end up thinking.

I become aware that if I had been able to do even one of the things my younger sister and brother could do—I would have walked a different future from now.

Therefore I beg you. Don’t make me any more miserable than this————

◇

"Black Knight—no, Onii-sama."

And so Sacred Knight faced him.

Together with her younger brother, toward the existence clad in dark-colored armor—toward her beloved older brother.

"Guu—! Both of you...!"

The eyes of her older brother leaking a pained voice were narrowed as if dazzled.

That radiance might crush my eyes, so don’t come any closer this way.

But that was an impossible request.

Right? —My beloved younger brother.

"Let’s end it, Niisama. If we leave the tangled threads as they are, we cannot connect them to the next future...!"

The younger brother, Gahel who had grown to around his mid-twenties, simply stared straight at the Black Knight.

The Black Knight twisted his face as if that gaze, those unstained feelings, were a blade more unbearable than anything—

"Shut—up!"

—Together with a scream he released black flame.

An area attack resembling Sacred Knight’s flame that burned away all enemies. Released in a circle with the Black Knight at the center, there was no means to evade it—

"Fu—!"

—Therefore Knight slashed it.

The slash swung down from the highest stance tore the wicked flame and changed only a portion into a safe zone as if cutting a whole cake.

"Then I—"

Gahel charged into the blank zone Knight had created.

Clenching both fists tightly he closed the distance and swung, swung, swung toward his older brother.

The simple and clear beating with no technique at all had, however, become a powerful blow by overwhelming arm strength. The figure rationally swinging that berserker-like rampaging power would, from the enemy’s perspective, be fine to call a threat.

"Not yet! Don’t think you can defeat me with this level...!"

Yet the ringing metallic sound was proof the attack had been blocked. He readied the black greatsword like a shield, received the blows released with mighty arm strength, and parried the impact.

The physical ability of Gahel who had become Growth Vigilante greatly surpassed the Black Knight. Since he had closed the distance, he should have been able to smash him easily.

—The reason it did not become so was nothing other than the difference in each other’s skill.

The Black Knight, since becoming a Monster Villain one year ago, had swung his sword for the queen without rest and never neglected training.

In contrast, Gahel until only a few hours ago had been a sickly boy who only read books in his room—even if he won in physical ability, as an obvious fact he greatly lost in combat experience points.

Even if he punched he was parried, and a counter blade flipped. If he received that while collapsing his stance, after that it was already the Black Knight’s solo stage.

Sword, black flame.

Swing, release.

With polished technique he cornered the younger brother who had only power all at once.

"—I will not allow it!"

But that premise allied with Sacred Knight.

She flicked the fatal blow swung toward her younger brother and swung her sword as if slashing it away.

Toward the Black Knight who evaded that brute-force one, Knight stepped in and released a precise follow-up. With a large swing that forced evasion she made him retreat to an assumed place, and slammed in the real attack before he could ready his stance.

The sword Knight swung shaved and destroyed the Black Knight’s armor. Just as the Black Knight had grown this past year through actual combat and training—Knight had been growing the whole time from before that until now.

The fact that a man who obtained the power to fight after birth had then continued effort the whole time.

The fact that a girl who innately possessed the power to fight had continued effort from even before the man.

Both were effort, and there was no high or low—but the clear difference of talent and time drove the Black Knight into disadvantage.

The reason the Black Knight had tried to break Knight’s heart with wicked schemes was there. No matter how he struggled, he understood he could not defeat Knight.

But even so—the black blade swung with such feelings was all precisely endured.

"Gu—ku, so...!"

Talent, amount of training, even the weapon and the flame he manipulated—the Black Knight was a lower compatibility of Sacred Knight.

Only in actual combat experience did the Black Knight surpass her, but that alone could not overturn this disadvantage.

Even so, to reel in the possibility of victory that might exist one in a million, one in a hundred million, he swung his sword—

"I’ll leave it to you—Gahel!"

"Un, Onee-sama!"

"Ku...!"

Gahel’s fist was slammed into the defenseless Black Knight. ℴℴ𝘮

He had been wary; it was not that he had forgotten it was two versus one.

Simply—he had no leeway to divert his consciousness from Knight’s attacks, and could not defend.

Armor shattered, he rolled across the ground from the impact—yet the Black Knight stood.

"...As I thought, I am dust."

While vomiting blood he crumpled his face.

He hated hated hated his own ugliness, his own weakness.

"I dropped my heart into darkness and ate the princess’s light to become strong, yet if I fight properly it’s this state."

Relying on wicked schemes to trap the opponent—is that a knight’s way? Don’t fuck with me, absolutely not.

Of course, rather than clinging to means and losing, it is better to win even using dirty hands.

No matter how proud, a loser is a loser; no matter how much you shout that you yourself are correct and splendid, victory and defeat will not be overturned.

"Surely we’re fundamentally different. Blessed by light, chosen by the Spirit—unlike you, I am thoroughly unsightly. Laugh at me."

What tormented the Black Knight’s heart was the current situation of being cornered even though he had used dirty means.

He had fallen into darkness and trapped his younger sister in order to grasp victory without choosing means—yet the glittering her had stood again with the bonds of friends and family.

Ah—that.

Like a knight in a story, exactly the self he had wanted to become, shining—looking at it, the Black Knight’s eyes seemed about to be crushed.

"It really makes me sick. The self that cannot reach what I sought, the self that cannot even reach your feet, the weakness of heart that even lost to my younger brother—and the ugly jealousy I still cannot discard at this late stage, all of it, all of it, I hate it."

He had been jealous of his shining younger sister, that had been seen through by the Seed of Desire—and he had pulled her legs.

Because I became a Monster Villain it couldn’t be helped—that kind of excuse was denied by the younger brother before his eyes.

What Black Knight. Isn’t it presumptuous dust to even call himself a knight.

Why was such dust born.

If a man like this had not existed, the world would have turned much better.