Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty: Chivalric Spirit
“…What shall we do, Captain?”
“What do you mean what shall we do—do you want to risk your lives for Miss Alchemist’s whim?”
Asked by a knight, Alban answered with a bitter expression.
Unlike Alban, who was negative about Karen’s proposal, the knights looked desperate.
“But if we can borrow Miss Alchemist’s power now, even we might be able to conquer a dungeon…!”
“Master Julius is already in the middle of conquering the dungeon. Are you trying to steal his achievements?”
“That’s not it! —Even someone as capable as Master Julius could have something go wrong. Like with the previous earl.”
Almost the moment Karen gasped, Alban shouted at the knight:
“Silence! Master Julius and Lord Winfried are completely different. Lord Winfried’s strength was said to be about that of a lower C-rank adventurer. He can’t be compared to Master Julius, who is said to be among the top B-rank adventurers!”
After saying this in one breath, Alban looked at Karen and said:
“Despite being a part of the knight order bearing the Ehlertt name, these men lament their lack of dungeon-conquering experience. So they just fabricated a reason because they want to dive into a dungeon. Rest assured, nothing untoward would happen to Master Julius.”
Saying this, Alban turned back toward the knight. Karen also looked at the knight’s face. He was a young knight. Late teens, perhaps about the same age as Karen.
“Do you not even understand what should and should not be said in front of Master Julius’ fiancée?”
“…! I was in the wrong. Miss Alchemist, I apologize for my lack of consideration.”
The young knight’s face showed sudden realization at Alban’s words, and he immediately apologized to Karen.
Karen responded with a smile:
“Please don’t worry about it. I was the one who stirred up everyone’s hopes, after all.”
The strength of noble knights was said to be equivalent to D-rank adventurers. Captains might reach C-rank, though there were exceptional individuals like Julius who possessed overwhelming strength.
On average, they were only strong enough to maybe break through the tenth floor of a dungeon. While taking pride as noble knights, they also held an inferiority complex about not having the exceptional strength of adventurers.
That was why there was significant opposition to Helfried’s decision to display portraits at future New Year festivals of those who distinguished themselves for the territory—portraits of those who cleared the territorial capital’s dungeon.
If adventurers’ portraits were displayed every year, the nobles’ dignity would be completely crushed. However, they could not object. After all, the solution was simple: the noble knights merely needed to become stronger and conquer a dungeon themselves.
Being weak was wrong.
In that sort of atmosphere, Karen had tempted them with the chance to conquer the dungeon under her complete support, with far less risk to their lives than usual. Even if they didn’t make it in time for the boss at the deepest part of the tenth floor, experience participating in the conquest of an unconquered dungeon would undoubtedly sharpen their swords.
After calmly accepting the apology, Karen used the young knight’s slip of the tongue to say:
“Besides, as that knight said, something going wrong might truly happen.”
“What could possibly happen?”
To the frowning Alban, Karen explained with a smile:
“How can we trust that Horst, who set up mechanisms to cause abnormalities in the royal capital’s dungeon, wouldn’t set up anything in Ehlertt’s dungeon, his homeland?”
“…If he were to set something up, wouldn’t it be in the territorial capital dungeon?”
“That’s entirely up to Horst’s whim, so we don’t know. This time, monsters apparently overflowed a wider area than usual, didn’t they? Because of that, a person died, and the tent site was changed. Perhaps something really is happening.”
“Monsters overflowing over a wider area than expected isn’t particularly unusual, Miss Karen.”
“But something really might happen. In that case, Mr. Julius alone would be in danger. If we could rush to that situation, you all might become Ehlertt’s heroes.”
Karen deliberately maintained a matter-of-fact tone and appealed to them about the advantages of accepting her proposal.
Alban, who had been staring intently at Karen, eventually let out a deep sigh.
“Miss Karen, you’re genuinely worried about Master Julius, despite how strong he is.”
“It’s true I’m worried, but right now I’m explaining the advantage that serving as my escort might itself become an opportunity to change Lord Helfried’s opinion.”
“How could such an impossibly remote possibility be an advantage for us?”
Alban scratched his disheveled head roughly, then elbowed the young knight standing next to him in the side. It must have hurt considerably, as the young knight crouched down holding his side.
Without looking at him, Alban bowed his head to Karen.
“I apologize for my subordinate’s thoughtless remark frightening you to your core.”
“Eh? No, not at all—”
“Your hands are trembling, Miss Karen.”
Karen reflexively hid her hands behind her back. But doing so was as good as admitting they had been trembling.
Karen ground her teeth inwardly. The very Karen who was asking them to enter the dungeon alongside her was trembling from nothing more than imagination alone.
Who would want to escort such a coward into a dungeon? She had to maintain a composed face. She needed to make them think she was a reliable alchemist who would make them believe they could clear the dungeon if Karen was there.
She was supposed to make herself seem like a great sturdy ship, and this proposal like an irresistible temptation, yet instead she was nothing more than a leaky boat.
Could it end up like it had with Winfried? Certainly, the circumstances she had heard about were very similar. They said Winfried had entered a dungeon on the verge of a Great Collapse and managed to stop it, only to be killed by monsters in the process. Where was the guarantee that the same wouldn’t happen to Julius?
Karen pinched her hand behind her back.
“I’ll leave the decision to you, Alban.”
“Knight Captain!”
“It’s your future, and your lives. Make a choice without regrets.”
Gottfried came over and left the choice to Alban and his men. Would they dive into a dungeon and stake their lives for their future, or seek safety?
Alban returned his gaze from Gottfried back to Karen.
“Miss Karen.”
“—Yes, Sir Alban.”
Karen forced herself to smile.
A more relaxed smile.
To wear a sharp smile and project the reliability that she could fulfill their desires.
When he stepped in front of her, Alban lightly grabbed Karen’s arm.
He pulled out the hand she had hidden and, seeing the marks where she had pinched herself to stop the trembling, looked at her in exasperation.
She had intended to boldly press her demand, make it seem as though everything would be easy so long as Karen was there, and sweep them along with momentum into accepting. It’s all over now—as Karen’s vision darkened, Alban gently placed his forehead against the back of Karen’s hand.
“Huh?”
To Karen, who let out a foolish sound, Alban raised his face and said:
“I pay my respect to the knight who stakes his life to conquer a dungeon, and to the maiden who offers earnest prayers to the goddess for that knight.”
Looking away from the dumbfounded Karen, Alban looked at the knights.
“Everyone, we, the Ehlertt Knight Order Third Unit, will now begin the dungeon conquest. We do not accept Miss Karen’s proposal to carve out our future. Nor is it to steal the achievement of dungeon conquest from Master Julius. It is to embody the fact that the prayers of a maiden who thinks of Ehlertt’s greatest knight have reached the goddess—we, the Ehlertt Knight Order, shall demonstrate this!”
“Yes, sir!”
At Alban’s words, the knights responded in perfect unison.
It was Gottfried who patted the shoulder of the stunned Karen.
“What moves knights is not profit but chivalric spirit, Miss Karen—you moved them well.”
Gottfried said this and stepped forward.
“Listen well, you all—we will escort Miss Karen to Master Julius without letting her suffer a single injury.”
“So you are coming with us as well, Knight Captain?”
Karen said with relief.
Though she had counted on Gottfried’s accompaniment from the start, hearing that he would actually come along made her feel relieved.
In response, Gottfried shrugged his shoulders.
“Since my subordinates are going, I will naturally accompany them as well. If you hadn’t been able to move them, I had no intention of going.”
“Eh… even though Mr. Julius might need help?”
Even though he had once said that he would naturally help Julius if he were in trouble.
When Karen looked up in dismay, Gottfried said with a troubled expression:
“Because such a thing is impossible.”
Karen wanted to ask how he could say that with such certainty. But Julius was probably overwhelmingly strong enough to justify such confidence. Karen believed she understood Julius’s strength to a reasonable extent herself. And yet, because Karen still could not help but go to meet him, their hearts had been moved.
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