CH 218.2

218 – The Qualifying Round of Lem and the Others (Part 2)

The Knights Order handles a wide range of criminals, from petty thieves to criminals of the century.

Of course, this also includes criminals who are not Adventurers or Monsters.

Although they are not well-known criminals, these criminals have great fighting abilities.

Even though there have been cases where the arrests brought harm to civilians, I have never heard of a case where the Knights Order who went to capture the criminals were defeated.

Why is that?

The reason is simple.

Because they’re strong.

This is something that should not happen, but even if the Contractors of the Four Great Spirits become the enemies of humanity, at such a time, the Four Great Spirits that are on the side of humanity would break their contract, but even if they do not, the Knights Order have publicly stated that they can contain them.

Of course, there are almost no people who can stand single-handedly against a Contractor of the Four Great Spirits in terms of fighting ability.

So, they have given this remark as a group.

They said that their combined strength as a trained group is superior to the strength of humanity’s strongest individual.

The Knights Order are divided into thirteen groups according to the area they are in charge of and each of these groups is assigned a number.

Among them, the thirteen people known as Commanders are exceptional.

Anyway…

『The position of Commander for each of the thirteen Knights Order is hereditary and it is said that there is only a slight difference in strength depending on the generation! The reason is that they have gone through consistent training, but there are also rumors that it is largely due to Contract Inheritance! Spirits usually love a single human and after that person dies, they would once again travel around the world to search for their next love, but rumors say that the ancestors of the thirteen Commanders of the Knights Order of our country are deeply loved by the Spirits and have obtained a love that lasts as long their bloodline continues!』

In other words, the Spirit Contract can be passed down from parent to child.

However, there are still doubts about this.

Only a Hero can make a contract with Spirits. It is probabilistically unlikely that their child would always be born as a Hero.

Perhaps it’s not that the descendants would directly make a contract with the Spirits, but rather that the Spirits would give their blessings to the descendants in accordance with the promise they have made to the first Contractor.

Every generation has a Holy Sword and is raised with a gifted education from an early age.

In that case, it’s no wonder that there is little variation in strength from generation to generation.

In fact, as each generation accumulates more information on the details of the blessing, efficient training, and types of techniques, it is likely that they will become stronger as time goes on.

『Commander Astrea’s Job is actually…a Hero! As I mentioned earlier, there is only a little difference in terms of strength depending on the generation, but this is truly exceptional!』

I don’t know the exact details of Contract Inheritance, but if it is really possible for a Hero descendant to directly make a Contract with a Spirit, then they’ll become even more powerful.

In the first place…

『As you all know, Spirits also have their own rank. The main body, which are the Four Major Spirits, are the highest ranked, while the power of the other Lesser Spirits is determined by the size of the fragments when they were separated! In other words, those 13 Lesser Spirits are part of the earliest Lesser Spirits that were created from fragments during the war, during the time when the Four Major Spirits began to divide themselves to create Lesser Spirits for Humans. Is it something like a trial test before creating a lot of Leser Spirits for the Heroes? Or maybe they were created just because they felt so? There are a lot of rumors about this among historians.』

For example, the Frost Hero Bella in Fenix party has a contract with a Lesser Water Spirit.

The Spirit Magic she acquired was Freeze. Although it appears to be a high-rank Lesser Spirit in terms of power, it was not able to grant the Spirit Magic of producing water.

The Water Hero Wraith has a contract with the main body of the Water Spirit, so he can freeze and create a big wave.

It’s just a rough analogy, but that’s how the Spirits’ ranking works.

There is a difference in power and what they can do.

Similarly, the 5th Ranked Thunderclap Hero Scathach was given a practical Spirit Magic, Lightning Strike, by the Lesser Wind Spirit, but he cannot create wind blades.

The Storm Hero Aerial rarely uses Lightning Strike, but it’s possible for him to use it.

『It can be inferred from the actions of the successive generations of the Scales of Justice that her family lineage has a contract with a high-rank Lesser Earth Spirit! The details are unknown, as is the case with the Knights Order, but I’ve heard that criminals who face the Scales of Justice can only kneel in silence! The contestants are not criminals, however, would it be possible for us to see this Spirit Magic being used in this festival!』

The rumors that the Spirit Magic can only be used on criminals came out only because of their profession. Since it is Spirit Magic, it can probably be used even against contestants.

It’s not that the possibility of the contract stating that the Spirit Magic can only be used on a criminal is zero, but I don’t think she would participate in the battle to decide the strongest without being able to demonstrate her true ability.

However, the criminals can’t oppose it and just kneel down silently, is it an Earth-related Spirit Magic…?

『There are a lot of mysteries related to the Spirits of the Knights Order, so why did she participate in the Festival this time? After all, if it’s to decide the strongest, won’t she have to go all out?』

『Unlike the Adventurers and Monsters, the Knights Order do not have a place to show their true abilities in an easy-to-understand manner. There are a lot of differences in terms of persuasive power when only seeing the result of the arrest written in newspapers and the Net news and actually seeing them fight. Normally, the Knights Order are not allowed to participate in events including Dungeon Clears, so this time they might also have the purpose of showing their power as a security organization.』

Astrea’s party is not the only one that will be participating.

In addition, the qualifying round will be broadcasted on video and will be shown on TV for a few days.

The interest of people around the world will change according to what the contestants do in this Festival and that is what the Knights Order is aiming for.

『Ahh, you’re right. It’s not exactly the same, but you know, it’s like when you see someone who can do Spatial Transference, then you might think for a moment that “It would be easy for him to steal”. If he turns out to be a bad person, then the ones that can arrest him are the Knights Order, however will the Knights Order really be able to capture them? It’s probably something like that.』

『Unfortunately, incidents wherein an Adventurer gets drunk and acts violently are only occasionally reported and it is the job of the Knights Order to control the situation. If they don’t have enough strength to suppress the Adventurer, then the situation won’t be taken under control. The same goes for stealing. Whoever tries to abuse their powerful abilities will definitely be thrown in jail! This festival might be the perfect opportunity for the Knights Order to show that it’s possible for them to do that. Of course, the audience here does not have to worry about such a situation happening here!』

『Yes, that’s correct. Flames that can burn people to ashes without leaving any evidence, Earth manipulation that can bury people deep in the underground, and lesser-known Magic that is unique to a race! All the contestants present here will only use those abilities to entertain the audience! It’s important to emphasize this.』

『It’s really important. Oops, this is getting a little long. Now, for the next party…』