WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈
Chapter 45: A Staged…? Duel (3)
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“Wait, Lady?”
Orisin cried inwardly, Finally!
Morgina's attitude was a little fierce and her language rough, but from a step back, she was expressing her affection for Kriel in her own straightforward way.
Even that crazy, chivalry-obsessed blockhead, as Morgina called him, might get the hint if she came at him this directly, right?
“Did you get married while I wasn't looking?”
“What?”
“Of course, I find the analysis persuasive that religious reverence for sacred beings was transferred into longing for actual ladies, forming the customs of courtly love. But there are two problems with you calling yourself a lady.”
[He's really a chivalry-crazed bastard....]
Orisin muttered. The horse-headed spirit could now keenly understand why Morgina called Kriel that.
“First, it depends on whether we're using the standards of the Sacred Kingdom, the United Kingdom, the Empire, another country, or another race. But a lady usually refers to a married woman.”
“Use the Sacred Kingdom's standards. On our side, it isn't judged by whether someone's married, but by their dignity and honor. What's the second?”
In the chivalric code of the Sacred Kingdom, chiefly upheld by paladins, the definition of a lady did not include marriage. The reason was simple. There were many unmarried female clerics under the doctrine, and many paladins who wished to serve them as their ladies.
“The second is a problem along the same lines as what you said.”
Kriel looked calmly at Morgina. From the outside, it looked like a demon army commander delivering an ultimatum to a priest.
“Where's your digni...”
“Fine. I'll kill you.”
* * *
[You lunatic! Aren't you supposed to be a noble knight?!]
“What did I do wrong?!”
Kriel shouted as he desperately blocked Morgina's fierce assault. It was hardly a composed shout for a knight, but the clash of sword and flail against steel was far louder than his voice, so no one would hear that lapse in formality.
[Can you insult someone like that and still call it chivalry?!]
“Comrades can treat each other without all that formality!”
[What, you punk?]
[The master means he sees Morgina not as someone to be protected or a lord he must pledge loyalty to, but as an equal comrade. And among comrades, excessive courtesy is discourtesy. Isn't a certain amount of insolence an expression of closeness?]
Kriel nodded in satisfaction. His face was hidden behind his black horned helmet, but Orisin could easily imagine the pleased expression beneath it.
[You chivalry-obsessed idiots! Why do you bicker like that all the time, yet agree on the weirdest things?!]
* * *
It was an intense battle.
Mazhar Gabi had nearly lost his mind when his Champion said she had actually come to fix the match.
The Champion he had hired for a fortune had turned out to be a fraud. Was it all right for a cleric to do that? The Priest-King's official answer to that question was, “Depending on the denomination, a cleric's ‘wit’ may be recognized rather broadly.”
But now he was on the verge of losing his mind for an entirely different reason.
The endlessly rising black crows each looked like a lethal shell. Amid the storm of crows that sought every opening in Kriel's defenses and struck autonomously from all directions, two even deadlier red lines writhed.
Whenever the ends of the chain flails sprang out and struck the flagstones, the floor of the dueling ground crunched and shattered.
The battle was so vicious that no one could have guessed the two fighters knew each other. Then again, perhaps they could. They would have to be bitter enemies to fight this fiercely.
Daucrius cheered.
“Oh, Goddess! Whoever wins is on Your side!”
For some reason, Armede found herself more concerned by what the woman called Morgina had said than by the battle itself.
Morgina had spoken as if she had some connection to Kriel's armor, then boldly declared herself Kriel's lady.
Her background was an even greater problem. Mazhar Gabi, who had brought Morgina here, did not seem to realize it, but the bloody Divine Power that summoned those crows was a holy blessing, a specialty of the Church of Eve Kaha.
A Saintess of the Church of Eve Kaha had shouted, “I'm your lady,” at the Church's Champion. Seeing Priest Daucrius applaud and watch the fight, Armede suspected that the Church of Eve Kaha had no doctrine forbidding marriage.
A sense of crisis rose within Armede, though she could not define exactly what it was.
* * *
Kriel thought that he would lose if this continued.
Clerics and the Abyss were each other's ultimate counter. Still, under normal circumstances, clerics were considered to hold the advantage against the Abyss.
The world of Tirnanog itself tried to reject the Abyss, an alien contaminant from outside. Backed by the world itself, clerics were the natural enemy of the Abyss.
On the other hand, within an Abyssal Domain built for the Abyss to operate in, the Abyss's power was amplified, creating the opposite situation. Clerics were also the ones who purified such Abyssal Domains, while those who corrupted the world and turned it into an Abyssal Domain were naturally servants of the Abyss. Calling it an endless cycle of one side consuming the other was the most accurate description.
Kriel did not consider himself a servant of the Abyss, but the Dark Knight class was inherently similar to the Abyss.
So the more relentlessly Morgina pressed him, the more naturally he was forced onto the defensive.
[No, this is insane. Does she have no limit to her Divine Power? Even with the Saintess title, how isn't she exhausted after using it so recklessly?]
[The master still has supernatural abilities remaining as well.]
Tuon. If I use those, I'll be thrown out of here.
The supernatural abilities Tuon meant were not Fighting Energy, the shared ability of knights, but Blood Energy and Resentment. Kriel had no intention of making such a mad attack.
Besides, bringing them out would only put him at a greater disadvantage because of their opposing natures.
Scattering the crows' explosions, Kriel searched for a way to end this fight.
Come to think of it, this Trial by Combat began with trick after trick.
Then it was only right that it ended with a trick as well.
* * *
Boom!
Kriel drove his greatsword into the ground. Though the ground was stone, the tip of the blade slid smoothly into it. Fighting Energy spread from the sword's point, grinding apart the flagstones and scattering them into the air. Stones caught in the eruption of Fighting Energy flew like grapeshot.
“Good, now this is getting exciting!”
Morgina swung the chain flail in her left hand. The rapidly spinning chain became an iron curtain, scattering every stone flying toward her.
No, it did more than that. The fragments were caught in the movement of the chain. When Morgina twisted her left wrist, they shot back toward Kriel.
Kriel did not bother trying to pull the greatsword from the ground. Instead, he drew the Horn Dagger.
Morgina licked her lips behind her veil.
Even now, it was a finely designed blade. She was not giving it an overly generous assessment just because she had made it, but it did suit Kriel's overall presence.
There was something deeply moving about seeing Kriel clad in the gear she had made. Smiling, Morgina rushed in.
Then her expression stiffened.
He's covered from head to toe in things I made, and he's fighting me because he wants to protect that pink-haired brat?
There had already been a little sincerity mixed into the fight, but she could probably put in a bit more force now.
“Shall we press our flesh together and have some fun?”
The Horn Dagger Kriel raised was somewhat shorter than an ordinary one-handed sword. That meant he would have no choice but to fight at a much closer distance than before. It was a crude but passionate joke from the battlefield.
Kriel answered simply.
“That's exactly why you lack dignity!”
The Horn Dagger was shorter than both of Morgina's flails. Under normal circumstances, that would be a disadvantage. But things changed when they were close enough that she could not even secure the distance needed to swing a flail. Kriel intended to force close combat, and Morgina knew it.
“I prefer playing even closer than that!”
Yet Morgina welcomed his approach. In fact, she wanted him to come even closer. Morgina's chain flail flew out and coiled around Kriel's Horn Dagger.
The weapons made using Morgina's blood were made of Divine Power from the start, so she could freely alter their shapes. But that was only true in theory. The ability to sculpt their forms so skillfully in battle was Morgina's own skill.
[Kyaaaaaaah!]
Ignoring the horse-headed spirit's scream, Morgina tried to snatch away the blade. Knights had to be skilled not only in swordsmanship but in close-quarters fighting as well. Once Kriel lost his weapon, he would have no choice but to come at her barehanded.
It was a welcome situation in more ways than one.
Surely he won't bring out one of the Seven Demon Weapons in a situation like this.
Bickering while breathing in each other's scent had its own kind of romance.
Footnotes:
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