To be honest, I wasn’t in great shape.
There weren’t many hiding spots here, unlike the battlefield, and the space was even smaller. It even felt like there were more enemies compared to the location. Sure, there were thousands of enemies crowded together on the battlefield, but I wasn’t battling the ‘entire’ battlefield at that time. Unlike a trench where a few people could move around somewhat to maneuver a large-scale force, this two-story corridor was too narrow. There was little space to breathe.
Of course, that meant I was exposed to enemy attacks.
And they weren’t just regular soldiers; they were trained knights in many ways. They might have been humans who had never ‘tasted blood’ before, but that just meant they were a tough opponent for me to face alone against the odds.
If I hadn’t been able to turn back time, I wouldn’t have been able to stand here like this. In the first place, I probably wouldn’t have won at all.
…A game is a game. No matter how many enemies there are, it’s possible for the four members of your party to wipe them all out because that’s a story within a game.
Now that I think about it, my opponents included gryphons, the empire’s best swordsman, and even the Emperor himself.
I used the magic ice stairs to go up, but I took the regular stairs down. After a fierce battle, there was no point in forcing Mia to exert more magical power.
Those ice stairs probably existed because it wasn’t a ‘game.’ In the original game, the magic that players could use was only through commands during combat.
“Sylvia!”
Alice shouted at me in a frightened voice.
As I was barely descending the stairs with my limping leg, sweat was dripping down my forehead and slowly blocking my vision. Of course, I was dragging the Cardinal with one hand while pointing my handgun at the surrendered enemy with the other, so there was no way to wipe the blood away.
With each step down, I could hear the Cardinal’s body thud against the stairs, but honestly, I was too exhausted to even consider him.
…Hmm.
Only after reaching the bottom did I think that my condition might be the worst among our ten people.
Thud.
When I dropped the Cardinal to the ground, I heard a muffled sound. Some of his limbs had been torn off, but it didn’t seem like he would die from excessive blood loss. Maybe the heat from Marmaros had some hemostatic effect as well.
As I wiped the blood flowing from my hand, Alice rushed over to me. She snatched my empty arm and wrapped it around her neck.
“Are you okay—”
Alice, who was about to ask, quickly closed her mouth. To be honest, I probably didn’t look okay at all. I could easily imagine how I looked without even checking a full-length mirror.
During the fight, I was in a state of almost losing my consciousness, but now that the tension was slowly easing, fatigue and pain came rushing in all at once.
I might have been able to calmly rewind time even if my arm got blown off during the battle… That was probably because of all the times I had been cut by Lucas. “If you get hit hard, it hurts less.” This was one of the things I learned after taking a hit from Lucas’s sword many times. And also that the pain would become unbearable after some time.
“I’m fine.”
But even though the battle was over, I couldn’t fully relax yet.
“We need to secure the surrendered ones…”
“Got it.”
Charlotte, who was a little distance away, immediately understood my words.
“I, Princess Charlotte of Velbur, command you. All of you kneel and place your hands behind your heads.”
Charlotte took a step toward the knights and spoke confidently. She had several large and small wounds on her body. Especially on her shoulder, there was a wound that definitely looked like it had been made by a beast. The gryphon’s claws were certainly not small, and the position of the wound was much wider than that of a typical beast’s claw mark.
“You have conducted unauthorized military operations beneath the land of Velbur. This violates the covenant between the Kingdom and the Papal State, and we will hold you accountable later.”
At Charlotte’s words, the rest of the team began to move.
In fact, we hadn’t brought any restraints with us when we came here. We didn’t think we could subdue the enemy without killing them just by looking at how the battle was starting.
But it seemed the enemy had thought otherwise.
It looked like they didn’t intend to kill us? The Papal State knights had several handcuffs hanging from their waists. After all, if they killed Princess Velbur, it would put them in a tricky situation.
Whether they were using our lives as a bargaining chip or thought they had a good chance of negotiation, they had to leave the ‘intent to negotiate’ on the table in some way. The moment they realized the intruders were us, they probably prepared to capture us immediately.
Now, despite being in the situation where they were being restrained themselves.
“…….”
A show of force.
Thinking about it, it didn’t seem like a ‘show of force’ at all.
As I was being forced onto the ground by my companions, the heads of the Papal State knights turned towards me. Some had taken off their helmets, and from those who had removed their helmets… I sensed fear.
Even though I was injured and leaning on others, I must have appeared to the enemies like some kind of calamity. After all, I had swept through the enemies all alone, so it was understandable.
“Sis.”
Before I knew it, Claire had approached me and gently placed her hand on my right arm—the one holding the gun.
“It’s alright. It’s all over now.”
Not everything was over.
There was still much information we needed to extract. The story had twisted so much compared to the original that if I thought about the future—
But my thoughts couldn’t continue.
Claire gently took my hand, releasing the fingers gripping the gun.
She pulled the handgun from my hand and neatly tucked it into my hip holster, applying a slight pressure to my right arm to lower it.
“Let’s go. Let’s sit down for a bit.”
Claire spoke softly, almost coaxingly.
“…….”
I didn’t respond at all.
But at that moment, the tension seemed to have finally eased.
My legs gave way as I stumbled, but thanks to Alice supporting me, I didn’t fall. Claire also lent her strength by holding onto my right side.
“Take a little break. We’ll handle the cleanup.”
Since Alice said so, I decided to go along with her words.
*
Hoo.
I felt like I could breathe a little.
The device controlling the gryphon was broken. But it wasn’t just the gryphon that had broken free from control. Many beasts beyond the setting sun, which we hadn’t yet dealt with, must have also been freed from control.
Of course, I didn’t think those beasts would be unharmed while the ‘gryphon’ was still struggling on the ground. But it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.
I opened the door slightly, and Leo and Claire stood next to it. Just in case it would close again as it had when we entered, both of them were inside the room.
Even through the small crack, the recovery device was working splendidly. I didn’t know what principle it operated on—after all, it wasn’t mentioned in the settings book—but as long as it was deemed the ‘same location,’ it seemed to function just fine.
“……At least it seems there won’t be any scars.”
Charlotte said, looking at her clean shoulder. The skin visible through her torn clothing was flawlessly white. There was no trace of the wound she had suffered from the gryphon just moments before.
“…….”
Sophia didn’t say a word. Although she had cast a holy spell after seeing my condition, it had only caused the blood on my forehead to stop slightly and wasn’t of much help.
Maybe there was a limit to the holy magic she could use. In games, they used points distinct from mana, but considering the ‘twist’ between the original and this world, I wasn’t sure if MP could simply be referred to as ‘mana’ here. After all, it was only possible in a game to express a person’s condition as a ‘gauge’.
So the points used for holy magic must be the same. It would be better to think with some leeway rather than jumping to conclusions.
Alice stood unafraid in front of the gryphon.
With her eyes closed and her head bowed, Alice’s expression as she quietly gazed up at the gryphon was complicated.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the artifact I had grabbed before coming down to the first floor.
It was considerably damaged from being stepped on, and the light that had shone when the Cardinal wore it was nowhere to be seen.
But one thing was certain: something had recognized its identity.
Suddenly, the gryphon lifted its head sharply and shot me a piercing glare.
…Uh-oh.
Was this really the right timing?
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