"...Wake...!"
Somni grimaced at the sharp throbbing in his crown.
"Wake u...!"
The pain grew steadily worse until—
"Wake up!"
Opening his eyes, he saw the crumbling ceiling of a stone ruin. Looking down at the sprawling Somni with unabashed contempt was a blond young man clad in immaculate white armor.
"Guardian Knight Tamuri...?"
He was one of Prince Gilbert's Guardian Knights. Somni's senior, he had been introduced to him as an exceptionally formidable swordsman despite his youth. At the same time, he was notorious for brutally hazing newcomers; while the other Guardian Knights acknowledged his undeniable skill, they kept their distance.
"Finally awake, failure?"
"Excuse me...?"
Stung by Tamuri's blatant disrespect, Somni pushed himself up and took in his surroundings. His foggy consciousness snapped into sharp focus, and the nightmarish reality rushed back to him with terrifying clarity.
"Where are Egg and Laila?!"
He shouted the names of his teammates.
"If you're lookin' for that brat Egg, heh, he's right over there."
Leaning against the wall behind Tamuri was a bald man with a skull tattooed across his scalp. Wearing a vicious smirk, he jerked his thumb toward a corner of the room.
There sat Egg, clutching his own severed head with his remaining left arm.
"—Wh—?!"
A choked gasp caught in Somni's throat. He scrambled to his feet, but Tamuri seized him by the hair and slammed his face into the stone floor.
Sparks danced across his vision as a dull, searing heat bloomed across his nose.
His mind spinning in chaos, he cried out.
"W-Why?!"
He couldn't hold it in. In truth, he couldn't help but scream.
He had never imagined Egg could die, and above all, he couldn't begin to fathom why Tamuri—a fellow Guardian Knight serving Prince Gilbert—was pinning him to the freezing stone flagstones.
"Isn't it obvious? It's your fault."
"My... fault?"
Somni parroted the words. He couldn't wrap his head around this; he simply couldn't believe it.
How could he? A Guardian Knight was a proud warrior second only to the Royal Guard among royalty. They were supposed to be the furthest thing from villainy. Yet Tamuri's words sounded as though a Guardian Knight had actively taken part in Egg's murder!
"That's right. You dragged him into this. He died solely because he had the misfortune of being assigned to your team."
Tamuri stated it with chilling nonchalance, driving Somni to raise his voice.
"That makes no sense! What are you trying to do?!"
"Is that any way to speak to a superior?!"
Tamuri's brow furrowed. He slammed Somni down once more, then rose and began kicking him mercilessly.
With a lava-like heat tearing through his entire body, Somni gritted his teeth.
"What is the meaning of this?!"
He forced the question out again.
"I told you: it's your fault. Because you're so utterly pathetic, His Highness had to make the agonizing decision to dispose of you. Ah... how heartbreaking it must have been for our kind prince. I can picture it clear as day."
As if drunk on his own devotion, Tamuri pressed his right fist against his chest and gazed up at the ceiling.
"That's insane..."
Ignoring Somni's protests entirely, Tamuri spat out words steeped in despair.
"And so, that pitiful boy had his life cut short in the bloom of youth."
"Why am I being disposed of?! I've never done anything contrary to chivalry, nor have I ever shown the slightest disrespect toward the prince!"
Prince Gilbert ordering Somni's execution? He couldn't fathom a single reason, nor could he ever accept it.
"Oh, you've been disrespectful, all right. Becoming a Guardian Knight despite being so weak was an enormous disrespect! That is why His Highness commanded me to dispose of the failure who is unfit to bear the title."
Somni's mind went completely blank.
"Stop lying! There's no way His Highness would ever say that!"
He screamed until his throat tore. That gentle prince would never say something so monstrous.
"Good grief. Where on earth does that confidence of yours come from?"
Tamuri looked down at him with a gaze thick with contempt and utter exasperation. A tempest of raw emotion surged through Somni.
"I made the top four in the Sacred Martial Arts Tournament!"
Once again, he bellowed the single pillar supporting his pride. He knew full well how pathetic it sounded while pinned helpless under Tamuri's heel. Even so, this was the one thing he could not surrender. If he admitted otherwise, it meant Egg had truly died because of Somni's own weakness.
"How pathetic. The only reason you advanced was thanks to your father, Lord Lumpa. He must have poured a fortune into it. Every single opponent was bought off, choosing defeat of their own accord."
"That's a lie!"
He refused to believe it! He could never accept such a ludicrous claim! Yet deep down, a quiet voice told him that his father, Lumpa Barrel, was capable of doing just that.
"It is the absolute truth. In fact, every single Guardian Knight serving His Highness knows—except for you. Any true knight could tell at a glance from your swordplay that there was no way you earned those victories."
"That's... a lie..."
"Not that I pity you, but you are a victim in a sense. You're dying because your father's well-intentioned meddling blew up in your face."
"..."
Somni had no words left to fight back.
Why had their group been ambushed by bandits in the first place? What about the dying words of those traitorous girls? And now, Tamuri's deranged behavior. No matter how much he wanted to deny it, every shattered piece of the puzzle fell neatly into place, piling up undeniable truths.
"Don't worry. Your death won't be in vain. As His Highness wishes, we've arranged for that incompetent brat to take the fall. Once I execute the culprit who murdered you, Marquis Lumpa will be satisfied. A tidy little resolution, wouldn't you say?"
It was all crumbling. With every self-serving word from Tamuri's lips, everything Somni had ever believed in came crashing down.
—His pride and faith in his own sword vanished.
—His respect for his father, along with the trust that his father believed in him, vanished.
—And the unwavering loyalty he had pledged to Prince Gilbert, vowing to protect him with his life, vanished without a trace.
Paying no heed to Somni's shattered spirit, Tamuri continued passionately, clenching his fist.
"I'm not like you. I won't end in a place like this! I will plunge that incompetent brat into a living hell that makes him regret ever drawing breath, and avenge His Highness's humiliation!"
"Yeah, yeah. And thanks to that, I get my own little reward."
The bald man with the skull tattoo stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the beautiful blond girl lying on the stone slab. His face twisted into a grotesque sneer of raw lust as he licked his lips.
"You bastard, what did you do to her?!"
"Ain't touched her yet. Heard she's the woman of our target, that incompetent brat. Tearing away her purity right before his eyes and tormenting her to my heart's content is my job this time around."
"Tokotsu, I trust you understand, but—"
"Yeah, yeah, I won't leave any evidence. I'll dispose of the girl properly when I'm through. Don't sweat it."
"You scum! Are you even human?!"
As Somni roared in fury, the bald necromancer, Tokotsu, raised the staff in his right hand.
"Ghahahaha! That's the highest praise you could give me! And why? Because—"
A sinister grin splitting his face, he chanted a string of incantations.
—CRASH!
The adjacent stone wall exploded into fragments. From the dust emerged a towering, two-meter-tall red-skinned youth whose flesh was melted and sloughing away like sludge.
"Because I've already transcended humanity!"
Tokotsu declared triumphantly, admiring the monstrosity with deep satisfaction.
Horns jutting from its brow, elongated fangs... Could this be—
"A-An ogre undead? No, wait, that's..."
Somni forced the words through a trembling voice. Ogres were already high-ranking demonic beasts. But that thing was—
"Heh, color me impressed. A small fry like you actually recognizes it? That's right. This is an even higher evolution of an ogre—a high ogre! Man, killing this thing was a nightmare. Even an A-rank hunter team faces instant death against one of these bad boys."
Tokotsu's voice brimmed with twisted pride.
"Damn it...!"
A high ogre—a calamity rumored to have annihilated entire company-sized royal army units and wiped out veteran A-rank hunter parties.
"Turns out monsters with brains are surprisingly easy to handle. Take its daughter hostage, and it loses the will to fight in seconds."
Tokotsu bragged about his atrocity with a bounce in his step, like a collector showing off a prized acquisition.
"You rotten... piece of filth!"
The horrific scene painted itself vividly in Somni's mind, stoking a rage so fierce it felt as if the veins in his temples would rupture.
"Keep the compliments coming! I've got plenty more of my collection waiting outside. A literal army of myth. Forget Babel—I'm probably the first human in history to command such power. In other words, I have surpassed mankind!"
Tokotsu sighed ecstatically, his eyes locked onto the high ogre undead.
These monsters had murdered Egg. Sure, Egg was childish and far from a saint. But when Somni had slumped in despair after losing a match, Egg was the one who had invited him out for a drink. He had done nothing to deserve death. To slaughter Egg, and to butcher even a monster by exploiting the bonds of family, was utterly unforgivable. As a knight—no, as a human being—these men were absolute scum! They were viler than beasts, worthless trash unfit to walk the earth.
"Heh... Hahahahaha!"
It was so absurd that laughter bubbled up from his chest. Had the world he thought so noble and brilliant truly been this rancid, crawling with filth like them?
"What's so funny? Do you even grasp the situation you're in?"
A vicious kick to the gut knocked the breath from his lungs, yet his laughter didn't cease.
"Give it a rest. He's probably just lost his mind from terror."
Tokotsu waved a dismissive hand, scoffing at him.
Lost his mind from terror? It was the exact opposite. Every shred of fear he had harbored was gone. In its place burned nothing but pure, unadulterated hatred for the maggots standing before him.
Staggering to his feet, Somni glared at them with fiery eyes.
"You're all nothing but cowards! What Guardian Knight?! What Prince Gilbert?!
You're just a pack of pathetic cowards who can't even face Kai Heinemann and his incompetent Gift without stooping to the dirtiest tricks!"
He screamed every word from the depths of his lungs.
"How dare you! That is treasonous slander against His Highness! Take it back!"
Tamuri's face flushed crimson with rage as he rained punches and kicks upon Somni. It was a brutal, merciless beating from a seasoned knight. Somni teetered on the brink of unconsciousness again and again, but he kept his glare locked onto his tormentors.
"I'll say it as many times as you like! You're nothing but cowards! What 'gentle prince'?! A truly kind person doesn't butcher people on a whim! They don't slaughter innocent bystanders!
If a rotten, heartless prince takes the throne, the Holy Amelia Kingdom is doomed either way!"
"You insolent brat...!"
Tamuri drew his sword, his eyes cold and murderous. This was the end of the line. Somni knew it. But he didn't care what happened to him anymore.
His only lingering regret was Laila—the girl dragged into this nightmare because of them. He had to save her. Even if it cost his life, he had to protect her as his final act of pride as a knight. Even if she was a warrior far stronger and prouder than he could ever hope to be.
Steeling his resolve, Somni dropped his stance and clenched his right fist with all his might.
His hand trembled violently. Truth be told, he was terrified. What he was about to do was a reckless, suicidal charge. Nothing more than childish bravado. In all likelihood, he was going to die.
Come to think of it, he had never even been in a real brawl. To think he had once strutted around, proudly calling himself a first-rate knight.
"Die!"
As Tamuri raised his blade, Somni grabbed a chunk of stone from the ground, hurled it at him, and lunged forward with everything he had.
"Tch!"
Tamuri casually deflected the stone with his blade and brought his longsword down in a lethal arc aimed at Somni's crown. Somni twisted desperately to dodge, but the blade sheared straight through his left shoulder.
Gritting his teeth against agony so sharp it felt like an iron stake driven into his spine, Somni drove his clenched right fist into Tamuri's cheek. Watching the knight stagger back, Somni wheeled around and sprinted toward Laila.
(Reach her!)
Just as Somni's fingers grazed toward Laila—
"Too bad for you."
Tokotsu's repulsive voice rang out. A crushing impact tore into Somni's ribs, sending his vision spinning as he crashed violently into the stone wall.
"You worthless piece of garbage!"
Through fading consciousness, Somni saw Tamuri stalking toward him with the face of a demon.
Then, out of nowhere, the back of a black-robed figure materialized before his eyes.
"You fought well, boy. These fools have crossed the line; I can no longer stand by. I will shoulder your regrets. Rest easy and sleep."
With the deep voice resonating in his mind, Somni's consciousness slipped into the dark abyss.