CH 123

“Mock Battle and Reward Negotiations.”

Translated by Dawn

“Mock Battle and Reward Negotiations.”

“You’re the kid who fought off the demons? You’re so small.”

(No, you’re just too big…)

The man facing me was a rock-like man with a stature of more than 190 cm tall, and his huge stature stood out, especially when he stood side by side with me, who was only 160 cm or so tall. Although he was mentioned earlier about being small, the average height of a 12-year-old Japanese boy was around the first half of 150, and even in this world, the best one could get was 155.

In such a situation, I would think that it would be quite natural to come to the conclusion that I was not small in the eyes of the Japanese boys or the boys of this world, who were above average in height, but that the bear-like man in front of me, whom I was facing currently, was too big, wouldn’t you say?

“I’m Hannibal, Commander of the Kingsguard of the Kingdom of Schells. Before I go any further, I want to warn you that even though this is a mock battle, I’m not going to take it easy on you, okay?”

“Rolando. I am an adventurer. No problem about that. Let’s get on with it.”

“What? You’re not going to pull that out?”

When I urged him to start the mock battle, he looked at me with a dubious expression and asked me a question. I had prepared myself with a certain amount of well-dressed equipment for this audience with the king, and it was decided that I should carry a sword at my waist like an adventurer, so I was wearing one. However, I did not think I would ever wield this sword.

There were several reasons, but the first reason was that I was not used to using a sword in a practice fight. Although I trained with a sword in my daily training, it was rarely used in actual combat, and in fact, I had used it less than 20 times in actual combat. Of course, it was not for any practical reason that I was not good with swords, but because it was faster and easier to defeat someone with magic than with a sword, and it would not damage the materials I could obtain.

Even so, my swordsmanship skills, which had evolved to the level of a monster, were so much more advanced than those of most swordsmen that there was no way I could seriously contend with such an opponent, and even if I wanted to, I could not pull it out. If I did, the opponent would surely be cut in half without crossing swords with me.

“You are not even good enough to make me draw my sword. I am not joking, you are a hundred years too young to challenge me with a sword.”

“Fufufu, hahaha! It’s not funny for a joke, but fine. I’ll remind you that your arrogance can be fatal!”

“Then…let’s begin!”

Hannibal declared in high spirits, and immediately the referee gave the signal for the mock battle to begin. Almost as soon as the signal was given, Hannibal lunged toward me.

With one hand, he raised a sword large enough to match his huge body and swung it down at the top of my head. However, there was no way that such a significant attack would hit me, and the sword that was swung down plunged to the ground.

For those who knew his skills as the leader of the Kingsguard, it must have looked like a depiction of Hannibal mercilessly condemning a helpless young boy. But, alas, that was not what happened.

“Wha…t”

“Are you stupid? How can an attack that big hit anything?”

After I said this, I dived into Hannibal’s chest, aimed at the base of the great sword, and struck the blade with the bottom of my palm. Hannibal’s eyes widened in shock as the sword snapped off at the base, but without even giving him time for another attack, I leaped up to his face and delivered an attack with a certain degree of controlled force—I flicked his forehead.

“Guhaa”

Suddenly, Hannibal received a shock on his face and irresistibly moved through the air with the sensation of his huge body being blown away. The time it took was only a fraction of a second from a physical point of view, but from the person who was actually experiencing it, it felt like tens of seconds or even minutes.

He finally understood his situation by finally hitting the floor with his body, but he was no longer able to perform any further acts of combat and his consciousness was reaped.

To the credit of the man Hannibal, he was not weak by any means. In fact, as the Duke of Bangiras said earlier, there was no better swordsman than him in the Kingdom of Schells, and there was no falsehood in the sign that he was indeed the strongest knight in the country.

The only difference was that the standard of a knight was the same as that of a common warrior or knight, and compared to me, who was outside the bounds of that standard, this difference was as great as the difference between an adult and a baby, and from my point of view, he was no different than a common knight.

And the title of Kingsguard Knight held by Hannibal required a high level of strength in the country since the main mission was to protect the royal family. If the strength of an ordinary knight was set at 10, that of a knight of the Kingsguard would be about twice as high, at about 20.

In fact, the strength of this man named Hannibal was so strong that he was able to completely defeat Galvatos, the familiar of the demon called Mammon that I met in the 20th level of Orargrand, and as a human being, he would definitely rank among the top five or ten.

“T-that’s it! Winner, Rolando!”

After checking Hannibal, which had stopped moving, the referee, bewildered, declared the result of the match. As a participant in this farce, I was tempted to spend an hour or so questioning the mastermind behind it, wondering why he had decided to make me do this.

“N-no way. The Commander of the Kingsguard of Hannibal got defeated so easily.”

“A-a monster.”

“T-too strong.”

Some were astonished that the strongest knight in the country had been defeated so easily, while others were horrified by my power. Just as the place began to buzz, a man’s high-pitched laugh echoed through the air.

“No way, I never thought you’d really beat Hannibal.”

“I am glad you are satisfied.”

“Now there will be no one who doubts that you are the hero of Orargrand. Thank you once again for your great work in defeating the demons.”

It was not something I did for the sake of this country, but as the king, he must be unable not to honor the feat of defeating the demons, who were powerful to humans, and I respond by bowing to him. The king calm the still noisy atmosphere with a single word, “Silence,” and then he asked me a question.

“I would like to give you a reward for this, Rolando. Is there anything you would like?”

“If you can give me something, please grant me three modest wishes.”

“Hmm, three…and what are those three wishes?”

The nobles, who regained their composure at my words, began swearing, “Even one wish is arrogant, enough” “Greedy adventurer,” etc. Perhaps because they learned of my abilities during the mock battle earlier, I felt that they were swearing less than they had at first.

“Quiet! My apologies. Please tell me your wishes.”

“Well, the first is…”

At the king’s words, I spoke of three wishes that I would like to have fulfilled. The three wishes were as follows.

First of all, as for the first one, the most important reason was that it would be a hassle, to say the least. After all, it would be a complete disaster if I became the head of a new noble family after having forced the succession of the Baron Malbert family on my younger brother. In order to avoid this, I dared to obtain a promise from the king that he would not permanently grant me a title and a fiefdom as a reward for this matter.

As for the other two, since it was an achievement of defeating the demons, the country’s face would be at stake unless some kind of reward or bounty was given. For my part, I did not care about such a face, but since I could not say so, I decided to balance the books by granting permission to have a mansion for the base of operations in the royal capital, to enter the large library, and the royal castle’s library.

“These are my humble requests.”

“Are you sure you don’t want a title or a fief? I could give you a viscountcy for this achievement—”

“I do not need.”

“…so, is that it?”

“…That is it.”

As I had expected, he wanted to possess me, who had the power to compete with the demons. He seemed to be a little dissatisfied with my wish and accepted the first one surprisingly easily, perhaps fearing that it would spoil my good mood. The other two were also accepted without any problem, but that wasn’t all there was to it…

“I will grant all your wishes. But this is a little too much for our side. Therefore, Rolando, the hero of Orargrand. In honor of your achievements, I shall grant you the Mithril First Class Medal and 500 large gold coins as a reward for this achievement. Anyone who has any objection to this should present it here and immediately.”

(Eh, seriously? Mithril First Class Medal…you say!?)

The Mithril First Class Medal was a title given to those who had made great achievements for the country and was considered the highest honor given to only five people since the Kingdom of Schells was established as a country.

I now recall that when I was accumulating knowledge in the library of the Malbert family, I had glimpsed a description of a medal that was given according to one’s contribution to the country. The Mithril First Class Medal was considered to be the highest of all such medals.

The nobles present at the meeting were in an uproar at the awarding of the medal, but there were no objectors to the king’s decision, and the additional reward was to be given against my will.