Master’s Smile

Volume 5 – Kingdom Arc

C114 – Deformed Left Arm

“Wissen! What in the world is that!?”

Lintz spontaneously called out the name of the other member of his entourage.

It was Neena who reacted with a startled look.

“Brother!? I thought no one but us were allowed in this arena!?”

“Silence! Now is not the time for that!”

Brushing off Neena’s protest, Lintz asked Wissen, who suddenly appeared next to him with a foolish grin.

“Wissen! Explain everything about her left arm! What the hell is that thing!?”

“Hmm…… Oh-ho!! This one is a rarity!”

Wissen fiddled with his glasses and observed Ritter who was looking at Theldorff.

He immediately identified it and immediately explained it to Lintz.

“Ritter-san’s left arm. That’s not human, you see.”

“I already know from seeing it! I’m asking you what on earth is that thing!?”

“Seems like she owns a demon.”

Wissen, shaking his head in a fed up manner, decided to give a brief answer to Lintz.

“D-Demon…you say…?”

“Yes. It’s the same demon that Prince Lintz had let me create and Theldorff-san carry. Although mine is an artificial one made by alchemy, Ritter-san seems to have a real one.”

Demons are supernatural beings.

They are the counterpart of angels and are said to be just as powerful as them.

Seeing that the main religion that is widely practiced in this kingdom is Angelism, shows how tremendous the angels’ influence is.

As for Demonism, which worships the demons, even though it is not an orthodox religion in Evans Kingdom, it might still be a majority in other nations.

Lintz had had Wissen research and experiment to obtain such supernatural power, but he had only been able to create, at best, a lowest-ranked demon.

“So she got a real demon in her…?”

“It appears to be so.”

Lintz’s body trembled.

It was not from fear, but from ecstasy.

The power he wanted so badly was right in front of him.

If only he had the power of the demons, it would be a piece of cake for him to become the king.

“Theldorff! Capture her alive! Her power will be important to me from now on!!”

“Brother! What in the world are you-…!?”

“Hmph! As expected, Ritter is a waste of talent for you. She will only show her true potential under me.”

Neena raised her voice when Lintz tried to take her most trusted aide in front of her.

Yet, Lintz only laughed foolishly at her in response.

Although Theldorff received his order, he did not respond to the command.

Dripping with cold sweat, he stared at Ritter, who had landed on the ground.

“Capture…? What a bad joke.”

Just facing each other, he was already under tremendous pressure.

Theldorff, a fierce warrior who had experienced many battles as the leader of Evans Kingdom’s knights and had continued to win countless times, was currently terrified.

It was not due to Ritter’s bloodlust.

She was just staring at him.

But that action alone was enough to make him feel intensely uncomfortable.

“A demonic left arm…. How horrifying….”

“…….”

Ritter had a slight reaction when she heard Theldorff’s remark.

Yet it was so small that no one noticed, and shortly afterward Ritter was back to her usual demeanor.

Theldorff’s gaze was naturally focused on her left arm, which had changed in an unnatural way.

Ritter’s right arm was feminine and slender, so beautiful that one would not have thought she was a strong sword-wielder.

Her transformed left arm, on the other hand, was hardly human.

Her white skin had turned black, and her nails, which had been neatly trimmed, were sharply pointed.

The size of the arm itself had also changed, from a thin arm to a swollen arm that was even thicker than Theldorff’s.

Her left arm had completely canceled out the wind blade that had easily broken Ritter’s sword.

“What in the world are you? A demon…doesn’t seem like it.”

“…None of your business.”

Theldorff’s question was immediately dismissed.

Nevertheless, he too did not believe that Ritter was a demon.

It was hard to imagine that she would keep her camouflage, no matter how much she was hurt before.

…In actuality, the matter of her being a member of the worst dark guild “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)” had not even been discovered yet.

“Tough to use this all the time…. I’ll end this quickly.”

“…I see. I too am a little tired of using Fulbred, so I’m with you.”

The idea of taking Ritter alive never crossed Theldorff’s mind.

There was no way he could afford it.

If he thought about it and tried to go easy on her, he would lose his life the very next moment.

For his daughter’s sake, he could not die here.

“Muuuuuuh!!!”

Theldorff swung Fulbred with tremendous power.

Not one, but several wind slashes flew out from it.

If even a single blow hit her, the deadly blade had the power to tear Ritter’s body apart without mercy.

“Tou.”

Yet, Ritter canceled them out by simply swinging her left arm.

Just a moment ago, Ritter had already struggled to catch even a single blow, now she was able to cancel the wind simply by making a motion as if she were brushing off a winged insect.

“Kuh…!!!”

This was expected to happen if someone was imbued with the power of demons.

Nevertheless, it was still inevitable for him to be flabbergasted when he actually witnessed it.

Seeing this as an opportunity, Ritter swiftly rushed to Theldorff.

Perhaps because she had released the demon in her left arm, her speed became even faster than before.

“Guooh…!?”

With a heavy thud, Ritter’s left fist slammed into the ground.

The inhumane force caused the ground to crack violently, scattering debris and shaking the entire arena like an earthquake.

Theldorff managed to avoid the blow, but a piece of the debris hit him on the head, causing a streak of blood to flow.

“Ooh….”

Ritter unconsciously leaked out her voice of disbelief.

She was about to give chase to Theldorff after her attack had been evaded, but he immediately covered himself with wind, which let him fly through the air and away from Ritter.

It was impressive that Fulbred could not only release wind as a slash, but also could be used in such a way.

Though, that doesn’t change anything.

“Hah…hah….!”

Theldorff breathed heavily.

No matter how cost-efficient his magic sword was, a magic sword was still a magic sword. It would still consume a lot of mana.

“What are you doing, Theldorff!?! I told you to stop playing around!!”

Lintz’s angry voice echoed.

He must have grown tired of Theldorff, who was being pushed back by Ritter, a complete turnover from the fight earlier.

Theldorff felt like swearing.

Lintz could say such irresponsible things because he had not fought Ritter face to face.

Once he faced Ritter and was confronted with her bloodlust, he would understand.

If he had been playing around like Lintz said, he would have had his head flown in an instant.

“(…I need to settle this with my next move).”

Theldorff only had little mana left in store.

If he continued to fight like this, he would eventually become less able to use his magic sword and would finally be finished off by Ritter’s demonic left arm.

Hence, he had no choice but to attack with all the strength he could muster at the moment.

“…….”

Ritter also sensed that Theldorff’s aura had changed to one of a do-or-die spirit.

Nevertheless, she was neither frightened nor nervous.

The victor had already been decided.

Wind was concentrated on the magic sword, Fulbred, like never before.

It made a roaring sound as it waited for the moment to strike.

“UWOOOOOOOOOHH!!!”

Theldorff’s eyes snapped open and he glared at Ritter.

He then swung down Fulbred and shot the strongest wind blade at her.

“Kuh…! W-What a terrifying wind…!!!”

Even Neena, who was in the audience, had her hair flutter violently and put all her strength into her legs.

She was afraid that if she didn’t, she might be blown away.

Even Neena, in the safety of her seat in the audience, felt that way, so Ritter would have been under even greater pressure and fear with the wind looming in on her.

“…….”

However, Ritter was still in her usual self.

Indeed, had she not released the demon, she would have been in danger.

But now that she had manifested the demon in her left arm, there was no way she could lose.

“Wha…!?”

Exhausted after delivering the final blow, Theldorff looked at Ritter and let out a startled cry.

Black mana could be seen pouring out of her demonic left arm.

It built up until it seemed to swallow up all of Ritter’s left arm.

“Flood.”

Ritter muttered the name of a spell in a small voice.

In response, the black mana was released from her left arm.

It then went towards the approaching wind and easily swallowed it.

“…Huh?”

It was so quick that Lintz, who was watching the battle, couldn’t help but let out an exasperated voice.

The wind was swallowed up by the black mana, without even clashing with each other.

“…Hah.”

Theldorff was neither shocked nor wept, but simply laughed and accepted the situation.

Since joining Lintz’s faction, he had done some things that would not have been tolerated as a knight.

Although he had tried not to feel any emotion, he was still very angry and disappointed with himself.

He had challenged Ritter as a knight and a man with all his strength and was defeated.

What could he possibly regret?

“…….”

Ritter stood in front of Theldorff.

She was smaller in stature than he was, yet she looked incredibly huge.

“…You can kill me, but, if you have enough heart to take pity on me, I want to ask for one thing…. Please don’t touch my daughter.”

“……? Understood.”

Ritter nodded at Theldorff’s words.

Not that she had a slightest bit of pity for him, but she had nothing against his daughter in the first place.

She just couldn’t forgive Theldorff for trying to harm her master.

Incidentally, she didn’t really care if they called her repulsive.

Inside Ritter’s mind, what is important is what her master thinks of her, and she couldn’t care less of what others think or say about her.

It had been a long time since she released her demonic power and she was a little tired.

She wanted to quickly kill Theldorff and see her master to heal herself.

Thinking so, Ritter was about to swing down her left arm that she had raised….

“Dad!!”

However, a young but strong voice rang out and stopped Ritter’s arm.

Tilting her head to see who it was, she looked in the direction of the voice and saw a child she did not recognize and someone she deeply desired standing there with a gentle smile on his face.

“…Master.”