Insolent Knight and Prince of Mask Prologue

00. Thunder roars, then comes a sudden shower.

The low groan of thunder reverberated from the distance, and black clouds shrouded the surroundings.

Not one tall, gigantic tree can be seen. It is necessary for a person to antic.i.p.ate that he will be struck by lightning if this perfectly flat plain is. .h.i.t by a thunderbolt. Furthermore, almost everybody among the crowd in this place possess metals.

But they did not care about something like that. Giving up at this moment is unforgivable.

In this vast lands called Plains of Ereadol, humans belonging to two factions are killing each other. One side aims to protect the country, whereas the other party intends to invade. And as for the state of affairs, the defending troops is in an overwhelming disadvantage.

A watchtower is set around the defending troops’ stronghold. Snipers handling bows and arrows are up there, killing enemies. They accurately shoot down enemies, covering their allies. But they are in a high alt.i.tude that makes it easy to stand out, so it constantly involves the risk of receiving retaliation from enemy snipers. Besides, there is also the danger of being struck by thunderbolts from this moment on.

A man with blond hair is sniping from that tower, and he had his eyes set on a certain personage.

This person is rus.h.i.+ng back to the headquarters while allies are advancing towards the enemies, it is quite conspicuous even if the sniper’s good eyesight is left out. The are two figures of people on horseback. One is still a boy while the other can already be considered more or less a young man.

The man recognized the boy by sight and hurriedly descended the watchtower after entrusting the place to his subordinate.

The man rushed over to the boy who hid himself behind the shadow of sandbags piled up as a countermeasure against enemy penetration, and then called out to him.

“Your Highness Crown Prince! Have you retreated?”

“Yes… I was injured a little. However, it is fine. It is not something significant.”

The boy referred to as Crown Prince, answered that while holding his left shoulder. The injury itself is certainly not very serious, but a 100-man platoon should have been organized as his subordinates. Despite this, only one person is left by his side.

“Everyone in the platoon died. But there is one person who safely escaped, I believe so…”

The Crown Prince muttered, seemingly frustrated. The man a.s.signed as the Crown Prince’s Knight also remained silent with a gloomy expression.

The 100 Knights sent with the Crown Prince were elites. While it may be true that they were in the forefront of a.s.sault, it is totally unbelievable that they were annihilated. But unfortunately, that is the truth.

“…our forces in the left-wing are also being pushed back. The way things are going, our main unit at the rear will be under attack.”

The man placed the bow he carried on his shoulder to the ground, then quickly treated the Crown Prince’s wound. The boy gritted his teeth due to the pain, but he did not utter a cry.

“Father… No, His Majesty the King, I must protect him.”

The boy murmured. The man answered it with silence.

The King usually devotes himself to domestic affairs, and has to lead an army in order to protect the country. He is reputed to be good, but when he sees Knights in the actual site, his state of mind turns to “Please forgive me.” It is not possible to entrust the full authority of the battlefield to a King who never went out to war when he was still Crown Prince. However, the King needs to abide since it is a regulation, it is this kind of sorry state. The enemy forces that were hiding for quite a time have surprisingly elevated their war potential. However, the King made the wrong judgement in this fundamental area.

Even the Crown Prince — who had piled up several battle experiences despite being a youth of eighteen years old and can be said to have a long military service — knows it. But the King is the father of his life, the King is hopeless in battles but he takes pride in his abilities regarding domestic administration, he is also immensely popular among the ma.s.ses. It is only natural for him to protect the King.

“―――Your Highness. Please escape.”

“What…?”

The words that went out of the archer’s mouth surprised the Crown Prince.

“For us, you are our Crown Prince, a valuable ally we ought to protect. Please, withdraw from the battlefield.”

“Such thing…! Are you asking me to abandon Father and you!?”

“With all due respect, that is right.”

The archer declared indifferently and the Crown Prince was left speechless.

The archer continued.

“However, I am not asking you to just run away. Your Highness, I want you to meet a certain man.”

“A certain man…?”

“Have you heard the name Shal Hardeen?”

The Crown Prince muttered that name and became wide-eyed.

“The 【Hero of Rodell】…!?”

“Yes, well…it is that man. Although the person himself dislikes that alias more than anything.”

Before, the King received a surprise attack from the enemy nation’s spies while conducting an inspection at the Town of Rodell. Among the Guard Knights who fell one after another, there was a Knight who protected the King alone and on the contrary, he annihilated the enemy spies.

His name is Shal Hardeen.

He was fourteen at that time, the youngest among the usual Knights a.s.signed as escort guards. That young man resolutely protected the King and also defeated the enemies. His military prowess was valued by the King and the young man was promoted in an instant. But the time when there were talks like — “Next Commander of the Knight Corps.” “It’s also possible to get promoted as General if this goes on.” — that Hero suddenly disappeared.

Thereafter, no one knew where he is or what he has been doing――――.

“I am that man’s friend so I roughly know all the circ.u.mstances. You must not be daunted even if I talk about it in detail. Your Highness, he now lives in the Town of Forodd. Please go there and meet him, then ask for his a.s.sistance. Shal will not refuse you if you give my name. If you stick to him, he will certainly give in.”

“a.s.sistance… you want him to stand and fight in the battlefield?”

“If that happens, it will be the best outcome.”

The archer is full of a bitter smile. The Crown Prince heard from rumors that the archer before him is close with Shal Hardeen, but it was the first time he heard it from the person himself. Come to think of it, this archer is still young, too. He had repeatedly been promoted despite his young age, this man is also not an ordinary person. Forodd is a small town in the northeast of the Plains of Ereadol. Even the Crown Prince is not aware of it, except that the town is in a mountainous region and named Forodd. It is a town in the countryside. He is likely to arrive there within half a day if he went on a horse.

“I will take the reprimands of His Majesty the King and His Excellency, the aged General.”

The Crown Prince nodded after remaining silent for a while.

“…I understand. I will go to Forodd.”

“Thank you very much.”

The archer relaxed his expression and s.h.i.+fted his attention to the Knight who faithfully waited beside the Crown Prince.

“You, too. Will you go?”

“Ye-yes…! I will definitely protect his Highness.”

“Alright, I will leave it to you. It is normally ultra vires to issue instructions to a Knight from another corps but in this case, I am giving this order as your superior officer. In the name of Lieutenant General Leonhard E. Archridge, Commander of the Inferus.h.i.+a Kingdom’s Archery Corps, I appoint you as His Highness the Crown Prince’s Guard. No matter the situation, you must not abandon your duty.”

The knight stood straight and turned a salute towards the archer, Leonhard.

“It will be as you decreed!”

“Very well.”

Leonhard faced the Crown Prince once again.

“Your Highness Alex, please somehow be safe. I will await here for your return.”

“I will come back no matter what. Therefore, please do not die, Leon…!”

Leonhard smiled at the Crown Prince’s remark.

“I am tenacious as you see, it does not seem like I will die even if I asked for it.”

“Fufu… that is relieving.”

Alex also showed a small smile, and grasped the reigns of his favorite horse. He then rode horse in the next moment. The Guard Knight also followed suit.

Alex nodded to Leonhard while atop the horse, and began running from the place. The destination is northeast, in the Town of Forodd. ――― Leonhard picked up his bow while seeing them off.

“…Shal, this may be unfair to you. I am not asking you to return to being a Knight. Even so, I want you to at least shelter His Highness―――”

Leonhard muttered alone with just a little smile.

It is necessary to cut across the battlefield to head towards Forodd. Obviously, the probability of catching the enemy’s eyes is considerably high so arrows aimed at Alex were fired. Alex and the Guard Knight shook them off with swords, but a knight wielding a sword from their flank came close. The moment when Alex tried to dodge the sword, an arrow pierced home the enemy’s shoulder.

When he sent a fleeting glance back to the rear, Leonhard had climbed the watchtower again and nocked an arrow. 【Leon of the Distant Arrow】 is the Commander of the Archery Corps who boasts skills just as his nickname says. An ordinary person can definitely not make the arrow reach this distance, and his strong arms also drastically increase his power to draw the bow.

While thanking Leonhard for his a.s.sistance, the two of them withdrew from the battlefield.

The sound of the distant thunder resounded, and Shal calmly raised his eyes to the sky. Black clouds from the west are drifting this way and he has no doubt that it will turn into a thunderstorm by the end of the day.

――― There’s nothing more troublesome than fighting in the rain ―――

“…Shal! Hey, I’m talking to you Shal!

“…Nn? What is it, Tilly?”

Shal was abruptly snapped back to reality from his absent-mindedness, and he asked a random question. A bag of vegetables was angrily thrust in front of the young man in his mid-teens.

“Really, please don’t become absentminded in the middle of shopping!

“Sorry, sorry. I was just thinking that it will rain soon.”

Shal accepted the bag while smiling wryly and pa.s.sed several copper coins to Tilly as payment. Right then, Tilly’s mother unexpectedly came out of the shop’s interior. She frowned after looking up at the sky the same way Shal did.

“Oh dear, what foreboding clouds… They say that there’s a war happening at Ereadol’s border, I wonder if they’re fine.”

“It is the duty of the military to defend the country. It will be a problem if they do not do their work properly.”

Shal grumbled sarcastically. Tilly looked up at Shal, seemingly anxious.

“Shal… Is it really alright? Isn’t Ereadol just a short distance after descending the mountain? The enemies might march to this town…”

“Don’t worry. A town this deep in the mountains won’t be found. As long as the people from Inferus.h.i.+a Kingdom’s army will not run away to this town. If that happens, the enemies that will run after them will find us.”

When Tilly suddenly turned pale, Shal patted her without reservation.

“As for me, I’m more worried about the thunderstorm tonight. My house is crumbling. I need to reinforce it a little before the night comes.”

“Shal is really optimistic…”

Tilly’s mother showed a wry smile. However, the people in the town are relieved seeing him with this relaxed att.i.tude. That is how much they rely on this young man.

Shal left the shop after waving lightly to Tilly. He then came out from the marketplace and made his way to his hut at the outskirts of the town. Shal’s home at present is also his workplace and store.

Shal placed the things he bought inside the house, then immediately brought wooden planks and finished reinforcing the house with practiced hands. Shal cannot complain since the house was lent to him even though he is an outsider, but shabby is still shabby. Thus, he will be ha.s.sled by the leaking roof overnight if he did not reinforce it frequently.

After having finished the carpentering, Shal went back to his unfinished work. His atelier is next to his residential s.p.a.ce. Inside, there were several kinds of medicinal herbs, boiling apparatus, grating apparatus and others.

In short, Shal is currently a pharmacist. Both his parents used to be the same, and he took lessons in compounding medicines as a child. There is no physician in the rural town of Forodd so Shal’s concocted medicines fly off the shelves.

Moreover the effect is outstanding. “Obviously, I made it after all,” both him and others acknowledged. The people in Forodd lived without a physician or a pharmacist so when Shal said “I can make medicine,” he was welcomed with surprising swiftness as a member of the town.

While grinding the herbs, Shal thought ――― It’s been five years since I started living here.

Forodd is not aware of the person named 「Knight Shal Hardeen」. Information about the event that made Shal be recognized as the former 【Hero of Rodell】 never reached a rural area like this. This is the reason why Shal decided to live here.

“…But if they see me mixing medicine like this, those guys might dislocate their backs in surprise…”

Shal muttered, laughing alone as he imagined that spectacle. Of course, ‘those guys’ are his former comrades in the military. He himself thinks that this doesn’t suit him, so it’s easy to imagine that his comrades will be astonished.

Still, Shal likes his present life. He never touched a sword ever since he retired from the military. His sword is sealed at the depths of this house’s storage room, he even evades it when it enters his sight.

Something like a sword, never again―――.

It had began to drizzle by the time night elapsed, while the wind blew. And when midnight pa.s.sed, it had turned into a complete thunderstorm. The downpour sprayed against the hut, making the roof leak at once even with the reinforcements. There was no helping it, so Shal placed a bucket under it and laid on the hard bed.

There is no form of amus.e.m.e.nt, and Forodd doesn’t even have a source of light during the night so there is no choice but to sleep in the evening. As a Knight, he still played around at the Royal Capital even at night but that is not possible here. Fortunately, Shal had fallen into the habit of rising and going to bed early, but this kind of healthy lifestyle is also very good.

Shal had been sleeping soundly when he was woken up by the sound of knocking at the door. It startled him from his sleep, making him get up from the bed. Being alert even when asleep is his strong point.

He can certainly hear the sound of knocking at the door. Moreover, it is considerably forceful.

Is there an emergency patient? Shal instantly wondered. He is not a physician but if there is a person with deteriorating physical condition at the dead of the night, they will bring in that person to Shal by all means. However, going out in this kind of rainy day is even more dangerous.

Shal opened the door in a hurry. Wind-driven rain mightily blew indoors at the same time. However, Shal frowned when he saw the people standing in the doorway.

There were two young man. Neither is a resident of Forodd.

But there is one thing he knows―――.

The ultramarine clothes that the two of them are wearing is the uniform this country’s Knight Corps.