Part 49: The Lady Knight Becomes the Dragon-Slaying Hero
Part 49:
The Lady Knight Becomes the Dragon-Slaying Hero
CATRIA STOOD ALONE in a windswept field.
About three hundred meters before her lay a town, the very same town the party had stopped at on the way to the Elf Woods not so long ago. Her old brigade currently surrounded said town. According to Princess Lithisia, they had been brainwashed to believe that rebels hid within it.
Over one hundred knights in total… A full-blown army. Even worse, this army consisted of Rostir’s best and brightest.
How can I possibly fight an entire army on my own?
Catria gripped her Holy Knight Blade and courage flared up from within her. Alan, that shovel-incarnate superhuman of a man, had made this sword for her. And Catria had decided to become a knight worthy of the blade.
<Don’t hesitate, Catria. Do what you must!>
She cheered herself on in her mind, and as she did, it was as though she could hear Alan do the same. Catria smiled. To think she’d started to hear things. Even deep within her heart, she relied on Alan.
<Oh, and hurry up. They’re going to attack soon.>
What a specific thing to imagine hearing.
Wait, his voice is way too clear!
“Hey…”
<What’s wrong, Catria?>
“Don’t you give me that! Y-you’re the one who told me to go and become a hero on my own!”
<My apologies, but I wanted to see you in action as up close and personally as I could.>
“Huh?”
<You’re a vein of talent I mined up myself. What’s the point if I don’t get to watch you in action in person?>
Catria’s heartbeat suddenly sped up.
<That’s why I followed along in secret. Forgive me, Catria.>
“Er, um, r-really? Hrm.”
I see… So Alan followed me. He wanted to watch me in action. Huh.
Catria neglected to notice her own grin.
<Don’t let your guard down, Catria,> Alan said sternly. <I won’t be helping you. I’m currently an invisible man.>
“An invisible man? What’s that supposed to mean? You sure you don’t mean invisible shovel?” Catria was certain Alan had made a slip of the tongue.
<No. I don’t have a shovel with me right now.>
“What?”
<I left my shovel behind. I’ve got nothing on me. If things look bad for you, I won’t be able to step in.>
KA-BOOOOOOOOM!
“WHAAAA?!” Catria was bowled over by what felt like a weapon—not a shovel—colliding with her head. He left his shovel behind? Alan did? Had hell frozen over? “Wh-why would you do that?!”
<In order to be here for you when you break out on your own, I used Stealth Shovel to obtain stealth abilities.>
“How are those two things related on any level?!”
<By cutting some letters, I’m able to hide the true meaning of things, therefore hiding myself.>
What was he going on about now? None of this made any sense. Nevertheless, Catria tried her best to put it together. That was when she noticed the pair of shoes (sho[v]e[l]s) standing in roughly the direction Alan’s voice was coming from.
“…”
Catria was assaulted by a wave of understanding.
<The main weakness of this technique is that my shoes don’t turn invisible with me. Hm? What’s wrong, Catria?>
“I don’t even care anymore. Fine, no help. Got it.”
Catria somehow managed to mentally overcome everything that had just transpired just as she heard a whistle being blown—a shrill cry, one she was all too familiar with. This was the sign for the knights to attack.
No good. Catria dashed forward.
Urgh, I’m not gonna make it at this rate!
Approximately a thousand feet separated Catria and the knights. She could fire her Justice Stream at any time, but it lacked power at this range. She panicked, fearing the situation hopeless.
However, even in hopeless situations, Alan made the impossible possible. If Alan faced this problem, he’d solve it quick as anything.
At this range, huh?
“If it’s too far—I should be able to ‘fill’ the distance!” Catria cried out, unconsciously grasping the hilt of her Holy Knight Blade. As she did—
SHWIIIIIIING!
“Huh?”
For a moment, Catria was blinded by white light. When she could once more see, she found she had instantaneously changed location.
“What…?”
Catria blinked rapidly. Weird, much? The army a thousand feet away from her now loomed right in front of her very eyes. Before her stood a veteran knight with a huge beard: Captain Lancelot. He looked right at her.
No, wait, what the hell? I was so far away. Why is the army right here?! Catria thought. “Alan! What did you do?!”
But Alan (currently in stealth mode) simply kicked the dirt with his visible shoes. “Nothing. You’re the one who performed a most excellent Showarp.”
“A Showarp?!”
“The act of ‘filling in’ the distance between you and your target.”
Catria’s jaw almost hit the ground. No, wait. Hold on a second. I did nothing of the sort. I did not Showarp!
All she had done was grip her Holy Knight Blade, if somewhat unconsciously, and think about filling in the distance—
“You’re the traitor, Catria! Where did you come from?!” Captain Lancelot bellowed, interrupting her thoughts. The captain’s voice was piercingly hostile. The knights surrounding him recovered from their confusion and took up battle stances facing Catria.
Now wasn’t the time to bicker with Alan!
Catria unsheathed her Holy Knight Blade and stood off against Captain Lancelot. His glowing red eyes locked on to her with killing intent.
Those eyes aren’t normal. He’s being controlled by someone—or something!
In other words, there was a mystery to uncover here, and Catria had to figure it out. At that moment, Catria remembered how they had solved the puzzles in the pyramid.
“The pyramid…?”
Back then, what did Alan do? Catria focused, racking her brain. That’s right, Alan wrote it into the ground and…
While Catria retraced her memories, she mimicked Alan’s actions in real-time, writing into the dirt with the tip of her sword: “how to undo the captain’s brainwashing.”
Immediately, answering words appeared in the dirt: “The man in front wearing a purple robe is a demon. Defeat him.”
Catria instantly “filled in” the distance between herself and the purple-robed man and smacked him with her sword.
“GAAAAAAAAH!”
SWOOOSH!
Catria’s single blow sent the purple-robed man flying into a mountain far on the horizon.
Alan applauded Catria’s good work. <A wonderful strike, if I do say so myself. You buried him in the mountain, right?>
“Yeah, thanks… Wait, wait waaaaaiiiit!” Catria’s concentration finally broke, leading to her scream. Hold on! What the hell did I just do?!
<A perfect shovlauncher. To be honest, I’m really impressed.>
“Gaaaaaah! N-no, that’s not it! I used my sword, not a shovel!”
<It doesn’t matter what you use. I just want to see more of your stunning skills.>
“Wha?!” Catria’s heartbeat grew louder.
<You’re the absolute best right now, Catria.>
BADUMP, BADUMP, BADUMP!
Why is my heart reacting like this to a shovel man like him of all people? No, he isn’t actually a shovel right now. So it’s more like Shovel Man - Shovel = Man. It’s completely normal for a woman to find her heart fluttering because of a man. That’s a common thing. In other words, I can feel love and attraction toward Alan and do all kinds of things with him and—
“Wait, NOOOO! What am I thinking?!?!?!?!” Catria shook her head furiously in an attempt to wash away the steamy thoughts taking over her mind. Something’s wrong with me! This is all Alan’s fault!
“Ugh… Where…am I? Ergh… Knight Catria, is that you?!” Captain Lancelot’s mind control had been broken, and he blinked at his surroundings, bewildered.
Catria, flustered, dashed up to him. The captain had overseen her training and been a great help to her in the past. “C-Captain, are you all right? You were being controlled by a demon!”
“A demon, you say? Ugh… I see… I remember interrogating Zeleburg in the capital, and then…”
“You’re back to normal?”
Lancelot nodded, tentatively at first, and then with greater certainty. He began to explain, as best he could, what had happened to him and the others. About how dark clouds had covered Rostir, and how his own investigation had led him to discover that Prime Minister Zeleburg was behind it all. Finally, he described how he had attempted to take down the man himself only to be defeated and subsequently brainwashed, sent out to capture Princess Lithisia under the watchful eye of a demon handler.
“Gaaah!” The moment he finished explaining everything, Lancelot gripped his chest in pain.
“Captain?!”
“I’m quite surprised a mere human could see through my control.” A creepy voice echoed throughout Catria’s mind, and it sure as hell wasn’t Alan’s.
Catria scanned her surroundings and found another robed man in the crowd of knights. He looked like a court mage, but the murderous intent radiating from him was anything but normal. Perhaps most obviously, two horns stuck out from his head.
This demon was the captain’s handler, and his power far exceed that of the demon from earlier.
“You! You’re one of Zeleburg’s stooges!” Catria instinctively gripped her Holy Knight Blade.
The court mage floated into the air. “You are a threat. And as such, I must use all the power at my disposal.”
The demon’s hands drew complex patterns in the air, summoning a dimensional slit far above him in the sky. A crimson mountain emerged from the opening—or at least that’s what it looked like to Catria. The living creature entering their dimension was so large that nobody could be faulted for thinking it a geographic wonder unto itself.
It was, in fact, a colossal red dragon.
“SUMMON DRAGONLORD!” cried the demon.
GRRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAWWWRR!!!
The dragon roared into the air.
“Wha?!”
<Catria, it’s coming! Prepare yourself!>
At Alan’s warning, Catria raised her Holy Knight Blade. The dragon’s evil aura swept through the air as it flapped its wings. No doubt it would soon unleash its dragon breath, but would Catria be able to dodge in time? Even if she escaped, the rest of the knights would fall.
Her only option was to defeat the dragon, just as Alan once had in the desert.
Can I really do something like that?
The dragon readied its fierce breath as its tremendous wingspan blocked the very sky.
“Grr, what incredible force…!”
This was bad. Catria already feared victory impossible to achieve. She now faced a dragon, after all. Humans couldn’t beat dragons. On instinct, Catria turned to Alan in the hopes that he would step in to save her, but her gaze fell upon the set of shoes and the entire lack of visible man filling them. Even they seemed to tremble faced with the beast’s immensity.
Crap! That’s right! He doesn’t have a shovel on him right now, just a pair of shoes. Useless—no, wait.
A chill ran down Catria’s spine as dread washed over her. Alan had told her that he was, at present, powerless. It was certainly a fact that all he seemed to have on his person were a measly pair of shoes. Easily destructible shoes, no less.
Did that mean that, if Alan took the dragon’s breath head-on, the shoes would be destroyed and he would die?
“UGH!!!”
Just as Catria imagined this, the dragon let rip a torrent of fiery breath, a storm of flames.
The lady knight lunged between Alan and the dragon and held her blade before her. She now knew what she had to do.
I’m the only one who can fight back!
“JUSTICE STREEEAAAM!!!”
Catria fired a massive blast of energy from her Holy Knight Blade, and it collided with the dragon’s flaming breath. The two energy waves struggled against one another, pushing back and forth, but all too soon, Catria’s blast began to lose ground.
She needed more power. She gripped her blade even more tightly, but it wasn’t enough; Catria couldn’t control the wave blast’s recoil.
Nonetheless, she grit her teeth.
I have to do this. I promised myself I’d protect them. I made that promise!
<Catria, your scabbard!> Alan called out.
My scabbard? She gasped. “That’s right!”
Catria reached to the Sacred Scabbard Arcadia at her back and touched it. “INVINCIBLE!” she howled.
With this power, she could negate all damage she took for thirty seconds—and just like that, the Justice Stream’s recoil felt like nothing at all. Catria poured even more power into her energy blast and shoved back the dragon’s breath.
I’m going to be the protector this time!
“I’M GOING TO PROTECT ALAN!!!”
KA-CHOOOOOOOOM!
The flow of energy tore through the sky, through the dragon breath, and enveloped the dragon in its entirety, almost as if a second sun had sprung to life over the planet. Catria thought this a familiar sight; it resembled Alan’s Wave Motion Shovel Blast, one to one.
“Ngh…”
After a few seconds, the second sun dissipated. The dragon and the demon had been completely obliterated, leaving behind only a clear sky.
Catria simply stood in place. She had yet to fully comprehend what she had accomplished. Every member of the knight brigade stared straight at the lady knight…until one of them quietly whispered her name.
“Catria…”
Suddenly, her name spread throughout the crowd of knights, whispered ever more excitedly, until someone cried out.
“ALL HAIL CATRIA, THE DRAGON SLAYER!”
“Ah… Huh? What…?” Catria couldn’t quite make sense of what was happening.
Alan (still in stealth mode) made his way to her, and she felt him pat her on the back. She stiffened. For some reason, she got the feeling he was smiling.
<You did well, Catria.>
“Ah… Mm…” Warm tears streamed down Catria’s cheeks as she quivered. “Alan, I…”
Catria welled with the desire to embrace the invisible Alan, but her heart warned her against it. Humans did not embrace things they could not see with their own eyes. That was the act of a shovel.
Would she dare bend the knee to the shovel?
Yet despite her heart’s warnings, the desire to do so only grew. She could no longer stop herself.
Why should I? I mean, I’m a hero now. I worked so, so hard to overcome all the trials presented to me. It should be fine to do a little shoveling now, right?
“Alan!” Catria dropped her sword to the ground, and just as she was about to embrace the invisible man whose presence was indicated only by a pair of impossible shoes—
Ding, ding, ding!
“Huh?”
The Holy Scabbard Arcadia rang its warning alarm.
SLUUUURP!
Suddenly, a shovel-shaped tentacle writhed out of the gemstone in the scabbard.
“Huh?”
<Hrmph, this must be because you used up its Anti-Shovel Power.>
“No, wait, pl-please! W-wait!”
But the tentacle did not wait.
With its shovel-shaped head, the tentacle began to prod at Catria’s clothing. Out of the corner of Catria’s eye, she glimpsed Captain Lancelot, eyes wide.
Catria’s cheeks turned bright red, like they were about to explode. “N-no! Please, st-stop…!”
At this rate, she would be shoveled in front of some one hundred knights. A public shoveling. Anything but that!
But because Catria had used all of her power, she couldn’t move fast enough to get away. Tears of despair filled her eyes.
“Catria!” shouted Alan.
The lady knight turned weakly to find Alan was no longer invisible. He held his ridiculous shoes in his left hand, and, focusing his power in his right, he fused the concept of the letter “V” and the letter “L” back into the footwear.
As Catria stood listlessly, Alan scooped her up like a princess. “Don’t worry. I won’t let that thing touch you.”
His words pierced Catria’s chest. Oh, so he’s going to save me? I knew I could count on Alan!
“The only one who can shovel Catria…” Alan raised his shoes triumphantly in the air. “Is me!” he declared.
It would take some time before Catria realized the fate that awaited her.
“NOOOOOOOOO!!!”
No matter how she struggled, Alan wouldn’t release her.
It was in that moment that Catria’s true trials began.