Chapter 243. To the Horizon Knights (3)
So of the Lizardn escaped, and so were captured.
Gusto and Radel tried hard to catch them, but they could not get them all.
Radel looked at the Lizardn with a regretful expression.
Then he muttered,
“…We could have caught more.”
What on earth was that human talking about?
The Lizardn felt a chill run down their spines.
And there were others who felt that sa chill.
They were the third-year seniors who had co along for the Horizon Knights practical training with Radel.
At this point, Radel, who was smacking his lips while looking at the Lizardn, looked more frightening than the Lizardn themselves.
“Is he a human trafficker or sothing…?”
And why was he so good at fighting, too?
They were Combat Magic majors, but their goal had never been climbing the Tower. It was simply to graduate from the Academy without incident.
They had liked Combat Magic only because it involved more fighting than other majors. Even that interest had quickly faded once they fell behind their peers in skill.
They did not want to climb the Tower, did not want to work hard to beco stronger.
As they drifted aimlessly, they began bullying people weaker than themselves.
Eventually, so juniors would avoid them the mont they saw them.
Seeing those juniors back away had given them a strange sense of pride.
And before they knew it, they had started thinking that they should put arrogant first-years in their place.
They never imagined they would run into soone this abnormal.
At that mont, Shartea approached the Academy students.
“So more trainees ca from the Academy after all.”
Having arrived at the Horizon Knights several days earlier, she seed genuinely surprised that new Academy trainees had joined her.
When the third-years saw Shartea, a fourth-year, their bodies tensed automatically.
To them, Shartea, who was a year above them, was an overwhelming presence.
“Good day, Senior Shartea!”
“We have always admired you!”
“The duel you showed during last year’s Sports Festival was truly impressive!”
The third-years greeted her loudly, forcing stiff necks to move.
However, Shartea showed no sign of recognizing them.
“…Who are you?”
Radel, standing beside her, asked,
“They are third-year seniors from the sa Combat Magic major. You do not recognize them?”
“I suppose not. I do not rember weak people.”
Shartea’s blunt reply made the third-years visibly flinch.
“Anyway, it is good to see you, Radel.”
“The feeling is mutual, Senior.”
On top of that, she ignored the third-years entirely and spoke to Radel in a gentle tone.
“You arrived at just the right ti. I joined the knight order in the desert, but they say we are returning to the base area today.”
“I see. You must have had a hard few days.”
“It was not particularly difficult. Personally, compared to forests where visibility is blocked, the open desert is more convenient for hunting magical beasts.”
Faced with Shartea’s drastically different attitude, the third-years wilted.
Once again, they were forced to realize that they were weaker than Radel, a first-year.
After speaking briefly with Radel, Shartea returned to the Horizon Knights.
She did not spare the third-years even a glance to the very end.
“We ran into her so often in the Tower for three years…”
“To think she does not even know our faces…”
Seeing the third-years’ slumped shoulders, Radel tried to encourage them.
“You can beco strong from now on, seniors. I will help you diligently. Then Senior Shartea will rember you as well.”
Help how, exactly…?
Rather than feeling encouraged, the third-years felt a chill creep over them.
“Hey.”
As the third-years trembled with an inexplicable sense of fear, a man with wild, mane-like red hair approached Radel’s group.
His casual, rough deanor made it obvious that he was not an ordinary person.
Radel recognized at a glance that he was the commander of the Horizon Knights.
The burning lion of the desert.
The red-haired man said to scatter blood across the sands while wielding twin blades.
Carlos Alcazaba.
Radel had read information about him while investigating the teor Shower Knights.
Carlos spoke.
“You the trainees who were supposed to arrive today?”
“Yes, we are.”
As Radel answered, Carlos’s gaze fixed on him.
He was the one who had arrived riding the griffin.
He could tell just by looking that Radel was no ordinary boy.
There were the golden eyes that marked imperial blood, but more than that, his attitude was composed.
He did not look like soone who had just arrived in a harsh desert.
People like this were one of two types.
All bluster, or the real deal.
“Which one are you?”
At that mont, an overwhelming aura burst forth from Carlos.
Strong swordsn who had reached the extre of the blade could freely control their presence.
Carlos deliberately contorted his face into a fierce expression and pressed Radel.
“Then answer . Why did you capture the Lizardn instead of killing them, when you are nothing but a trainee? Why did you act on your own?”
“Because they are useful.”
Yet Radel replied calmly, unaffected by Carlos’s pressure.
“Useful?”
Carlos found himself wearing a blank expression.
“Those lizards are useful?”
“Yes.”
Radel had already fard alongside Lizardn in Raviedel.
Because he had experience, he was confident.
At the sa ti, cries from the captured Lizardn echoed from afar.
“You filthy humans! Stealing our land was not enough, and now you humiliate us like this!”
***
“So it was an oasis, specifically.”
Radel thought as he entered the Horizon Knights’ base area with them.
He had been wondering what the Lizardn ant when they said their land had been taken, and now the answer was obvious.
Before the group stretched the dazzling sight of an oasis.
It was small, but water pooled there, allowing grass and trees to grow around it.
A rare sight in the desert.
“How is it? Worth seeing, right? The Horizon Knights live with this place as our base.”
Carlos grinned broadly as he looked at the Academy students.
The Horizon Knights returned here to regroup anywhere from once a week to once a month, before heading back into the desert.
This ti, they had returned after only a week.
“Commander!”
“Yeah, good work.”
As the Horizon Knights approached, people guarding the oasis raised their hands in greeting.
There were hardly any adults among them; most were ard children.
Even younger children ran up to Carlos without hesitation and clung to him.
“Commander! Did you make lots of money?”
“Of course! I helped people and made lots of money!”
Carlos laughed heartily with children hanging from his neck and arms.
“…Children?”
When the Academy students stared in shock, the vice commander explained.
“The desert is harsh. It is a place where children who lose their parents cannot survive. You trainees may not know this, but so parents deliberately co here to abandon their children.”
The third-years were horrified by the elderly vice commander’s calm explanation.
Parents abandoning their children in the desert, on purpose.
“When the commander could not bear to see children wandering after losing their parents, he began bringing them back one by one. That is why there are so many now. At this point, we are more like the Horizon Daycare than the Horizon Knights. Hah hah.”
The vice commander laughed casually.
However, Shartea’s expression grew increasingly complicated as she listened.
When she first joined the Horizon Knights in the desert, she had never imagined a place like this existed.
Children living at the base.
While Shartea wrestled with her conflicted feelings, Radel studied the oasis thoughtfully.
In the desert, even this much water is precious.
The eyes of the captured Lizardn could not leave the oasis.
They stared at the shimring surface as if sparks were about to fly from their gazes.
***
Dinner ti.
The Academy students sat in a circle with the Horizon Knights and began eating.
As befitted such a harsh place, the al was undeniably ager.
The third-years’ faces twisted as they received dry bread and bean soup.
“What is this…?”
“The bread is so hard… can you even bite into it?”
Born into nobility and raised in comfort, they had never seen food like this before.
“It is better than I expected.”
“Yeah. With the water shortage, I did not even expect soup.”
However, the imperial Radel and Inette looked completely unfazed.
Even Inette, who had grown up delicately, had grown accustod to poor als during her ti in Raviedel.
Shartea, who had spent several days with the Horizon Knights, ate without complaint as well.
“E-even Senior Shartea is eating this…?”
The third-years were shocked to realize that everyone except them was eating without issue.
But there was no other food to be found here.
Outside was the desert.
There were no attendants, no dining halls.
If they did not eat this, they would starve.
Accepting reality, they bit into the bread.
Once everyone had eaten to so extent, Carlos, the commander of the Horizon Knights, looked around and spoke.
“This is the first ti in the history of our knight order that so many students have co for training. It will be hard, of course, but you will return with greater skill.”
As befitted a knight commander, Carlos began talking about the Horizon Knights.
They were a private knight order, but also a formally recognized one backed by the state, stationed in the desert to protect the Empire’s people.
At the ntion of protecting people who fell into danger while crossing the desert, Shartea’s face hardened.
“Protecting them, my foot.”
Rather than protecting imperial citizens, they were extorting money under the pretext of saving lives.
At first, she had thought it was a coincidence, but after watching for several days, it clearly was not.
That man called the commander of the Horizon Knights had no trace of knightly spirit.
As a mber of the imperial family, she could not simply overlook this.
No matter how much money was needed to care for orphans…
Just then, Radel asked Carlos,
“It must take a great deal of money to care for all these children.”
“It does. The Empire provides subsidies, but they are barely anything. Children grow quickly, after all. That is why we sotis help people and accept compensation.”
But instead of criticizing him, Radel nodded in understanding.
“That is true. This is a knight order, not a charity.”
…Is it?
Shartea could not help but be surprised by Radel’s response.
She had never thought of it that way before.
Perhaps because he had struggled to develop a harsh rural territory, Radel began having a realistic discussion with Carlos about managing a knight order.
The budget required to feed and clothe the children, the cost of maintaining equipnt, food expenses, request fees, and even the surrounding situation.
“I heard earlier that you took the Lizardn’s land. What exactly does that an?”
When Radel asked what he had been curious about, Carlos scratched his head.
“Well, I do not really listen to what those lizards say. Who owns land in the desert, anyway?”
Hmm… this man really was a free spirit.
Radel nodded as he grasped Carlos’s personality.
He had a feeling that the Lizardn might actually be the ones wronged in this situation.
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