The battle is over. After roughly half a day of heavy fighting, there was a battle that left many dead and wounded.

I do not know the end of the battle. It was all over and I regained consciousness on the road where the wounded were gathered.

To begin with, I heard someone sobbing. Then someone's voice crying out loud. When it hurts, the voice of a child who has to. The voices I hear were all tears.

And the last voice that reached my ear was the prayer voice of a familiar person.

"Please. Please, God. Please, help me."

I slowly opened my eyes to that voice. Void vision as if awake. With my eyes open, the tragic situation around me jumped in. Among other things, Alice, who prays with her body trembling, rekindled my consciousness with color.

"A, squirrel......"

I put her name in my mouth and reached out to her.

"Ah... oh, good, really"

Alice wraps her hands around my stretched hands crying. In the sight that finally became clear, her face, crying and laughing, reminds her of the situation before she lost her mind.

"He... the Demon King..."

"Because that's all right now. So now... just think about yourself. Dikuld, your body has only been treated with minimal care."

If you say that and turn your consciousness to your body, your skin will have burnt marks, and your blood hasn't stopped completely yet. From the sky pattern that represents the current tragedy, there is no sign of rain stopping, and droplets are pouring on the body.

"This rain is healing my wounds. But this rain healing isn't enough for the seriously injured... so just be patient a little longer. I'll fix you when the magic is restored."

"This rain...? No, it's better than that now..."

I couldn't help but wake up a body of pain. [M]

"Mm, not if you can't, not now"

"I didn't force it. I've had enough rest. More than that, I want you to tell me. Ray... what happened?

The last time I saw Ray, the demon king was grabbing his neck. But if it's because Alice is okay now, then Ray must have defeated the Demon King.

But I don't know if Ray's safe. A little anxiety passes my chest.

"The child is safe. But..."

Alice distorted her face with grief and said. A bad feeling strokes my spine.

"But... what happened?

I told Alice I was going to say it. [M]

"The immortal hero... is dead"

"What...?

I thought I heard wrong. Because... I don't know...

But I can tell from Alice's sad expression that it wasn't wrong to hear it.

"The immortal hero confronts the demon king after Dikuld lost his mind. He said he cut the Demon King's margin in that battle and died."

"Oh, no... Well, then, Ray..."

"... after the death of the immortal, only one defeated the Demon King. Then he went to Sierra Village with the golden witch who was treating Dikuld..."

Tears conveyed cheeks.

When I was young, my uncle who used to play with me... died...?

I couldn't believe it. I wanted to believe it. Because that guy, those two were the strongest for us.

But the tragic circumstances surrounding her pushed me with uninterrupted tears of grief sticking to Alice's face.

"I... I..."

I didn't know what to say.

The first thing that dominated my heart was deep sadness. Next, a sense of powerlessness to myself for failing to fulfill the vow I made to myself to keep everything through. And when I thought about Ray, who lost his beloved father, I couldn't help but hurt my chest.

Tears overflow from my eyes. The nails eat in between the cobbles and crack. My chest tightens every time I breathe.

Sorry, sorry, Ray.

I... I'm just weak... and I couldn't protect my uncle.

I knew how much Ray respected and liked his uncle... and I... couldn't do anything.

"I... have been... what have I been doing?!

Scratch your head impotently ru. I didn't know what to do anymore, and the feeling that I was holding back sprung up, and I messed up so hard in front of Alice.

"Dikuld..."

Alice tried to hold me down like that, but I smashed my hand off, held my head, and hit the ground again and again.

"How could I be so weak!

"How can I not protect anything!

"Why, I'm squatting in here!

I... haven't grown.

Because I didn't want to lose it.

Because I can now protect my loved ones.

I became a knight. [M]

I remained weak before I met Ray.

One life. I... couldn't protect you.

What have I ever done to live?

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Oh, shit! Why am I... Huh!

"Stop, Dikuld! The wound's gonna open!

I raised my hand unconsciously to Alice, who came in to hold my shoulder and stop me, without shaking off that hand that I was in the way.

"─ Eh."

But seeing Alice's wet eyes worrying me, I couldn't put my hands up.

I don't like myself. I can't believe you treat her like a disturber who worries about you.

I dropped my hand on the ground without help.

"Dikuld, please, get back to your sanity. If it's okay with me, I'll lend you my breasts."

Alice can hold my head.

Potatoes and unstoppable rain fall on your body and your body heals. The effect of that rain she was saying.

But it didn't heal my heart.

"Ugh... ahhh!

Pity, sad, remorseful, painful, I cry out as I spit out that chest.

Even though it doesn't make sense that I cried. Even though everything is too late already. Unable to contain the emotions gushing from the back of his chest, he reveals them in Alice's arms.

Pity, really pitiful.

What a knight. Where is the knight? You can't protect one thing, what's a knight?

I don't deserve to be a knight.

The rain continued the next day.

The city of Wang Du was devastated and the people living there were also deeply wounded, both physically and mentally. Salvation is because the magical effects of the Spirit God still persist, and there are no new dead, but the lost lives will never return.

The meadows around the Wang capital, on the east side, the black and hard ground spread forever as if the magma had hardened, and several of the mountains that surrounded Gurli and the Wang capital disappeared. It's all traces of the battle against the Demon King.

And the catastrophe of heaven and earth opening at the end of that battle. The supposedly unexplained causes also naturally caused the collapse of buildings to nearby villages and cities, and the collapse of mountains and the formation of new mountains due to the rise and sinking of the ground.

The impact was also on the village of Sierra, which is relatively close to the Wang capital. However, thanks to the sturdy building built by Ray, fortunately there were no injuries to the villagers and only the earth collapse remained.

But still, the air falling into the village is badly cooled.

…………

When I was young, I used to play with Ray in the village square. There, the villagers were gathering. At its centre, the village chief. Then, Ray and his family. And a coffin with no contents was kept lonely.

"... Non always thinks. Whenever I see the death of a child born and raised in this village, regret breaks my heart."

I hear sobbing in the rain among the villagers.

"Even now, I remember. About the day Leddick was born. The days I grew up and got my hands burned by being the worst boy in the village. And tell me about the day you were proud of Redick for being a hero. When I brought Mullah back, I blessed her by naming her village."

The village chief brings tears to his eyes and speaks for the feelings of the villagers.

"Really... to the end, this guy got a bad kid. But the way of life was wrong until the end."

I stood behind the village chief until he finished his words. [M]

I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to look like and talk to Ray.

"Bless the heroes of this village."

Pray for the blessings of the villagers with their own thoughts on the village heroes.

I close my eyes and pray too, but I feel like I don't know what to say.

If you open your eyes, you'll see Aunt Mullah staring down at the coffin with vain eyes, unheeded faces, and Ray standing there with no expression, as opposed to a crying skull.

"... give Redick one final goodbye, everyone"

I add flowers to the front of the coffin in turn. I'll be in that line again, too, and parting with my mother.

My father is not here right now. At the request of the Knights, I am going to the Northeast Region. What does father think of his uncle's death? to the death of his uncle, who said he was an eternal rival.

I'm sure... you'll be disappointed in me.

I couldn't protect anything.

If you think so, you didn't have a face to make me see you.

Even to my father. And to Ray, too.

The rain that lasted two days rises and the sun shows its face. I look up into the sky from the window of my house impassively.

I'm not willing to do anything, I don't know what to do, I'm just shuddered.

…………

"Dikuld..."

Unexpectedly, I turn around. There was Alice who has been staying at my house since yesterday.

"... at a time like this, we have to do our job. Things have not yet subsided in the undeveloped areas. Keep it up, now Mr. Carambel and the others..."

... it was. I came here to work. To find Ray and get help.

But...

"... Ray won't be moving for a while, never"

I pretend to be sure. [M] Half of them are serious, half of them to hide their hearts.

"… then let's help with the restoration work. If you move your body, it could be a little distracting..."

"Restoration…?"

If you want to avoid face-to-face with Ray, it's not a bad idea to help him recover in King's Capital. Rather than doing nothing here.

"Let's go to Wang Du. 'Cause that's where the damage is most."

"Ugh, yeah. Not this village, okay?

"... that's okay. We're knights, so we need to use our power where it's more damaging and where we need it more."

And with the right excuse, I deceive Alice.

The act made me nauseous with disgust.

Where is the knight? There's no shard in knighthood, you filthy human being, I am.

I hate myself more and more.

I left the village with such self-loathing.

Then, in order to shorten the time, we went through Cliff Mountain and arrived at the Wang Capital, where we heard the princes were gathering their restoration hands and headed to the Royal Palace.

Through a path where the traces of blood still did not disappear, I stepped on the fragments of a collapsed building, and down the road I saw a run-down tent that looked cheap and didn't feel any elegant shards. Behind it are the ruins of a collapsed staircase and a royal palace. That stimulates the feeling of helplessness. Really, I couldn't protect one thing.

But my eyes quickly turned to another place. [M] What I was looking at was people gathered to restore the royal palace. To put it more, it was Ray who had just lost his father, who was mixed up in it.

"Ray...... eh"

My voice leaked unexpectedly.

There were so many things I wanted to ask and have to say about why I was here and about my uncle, but what I was feeling was an escape heart that I didn't want to face to face right now.

Ray, sharp as that, immediately noticed and called out to me.

"... are you here too, Dick? As you can see, this is where it starts."

Ray looked away as soon as he saw my face and explained the situation to me. But that doesn't get in my ear right now.

More than that, I even felt relieved by what face I should look like and what voice I should speak, desperately turning my head around and finally speaking out, and I uttered an apology.

"... sorry. I'm just weak, and my uncle..."

But along the way, he was struck by a fierce impact piercing his cheek. I did not resist the shock, fell back and finally understood.

Ray beat me up.

"If you think I'm a jerk, you know what?"

Ray shook his voice in anger like he'd never shown me before.

"─ Don't be complacent, Dick."

"I'm complacent..."

"My father is not weak enough to protect you."

The words I tried to deny were repeatedly denied, and I couldn't say anything.

"We were protected by my father. Don't get me wrong there."

"Huh...!

I was told, and it was the first time I realized it.

Protect?

No, it's not.

I was able to protect you. I was on the defensive side.

"We're still weak. You're too weak. But I can't believe I couldn't protect my father. You have time to think of something wrong, Dickie!

Oh...... yes. Ray is right.

I want to protect everything on the protected side, and there are many differences. [M] That's just pride.

I'm a knight, so I can't protect everything. Of course, I've never noticed that before.

I don't even deserve to feel it yet. [M]

You should be ashamed.

yourself not qualified for that.

That I, on the protected side, have fallen in love with myself. [M]

I'm just a knight now. [M]

"If anyone wants to protect him too, be stronger than anyone else, then say it"

"... Oh, you're right"

I want to protect someone important.

Thoughts that everyone must have in their hearts.

But I'm a knight. I'm a knight who decided to carry that thought.

It is our job as knights to respond to that thought.

─ ─ Get Qualified.

No matter what enemy comes, I will never give in to the shield that protects people.

That's the only way for me to reward my uncle for his death.

Something changed in me then.

Beyond the boundaries of the profession of knight, look up higher.

If I noticed, I was pushing Ray away from the people I had gathered and kneeling at the two people who stood in front of me.

"Prince Janis, Prince Gilk. Tertiary knight Dikuld Berstead temporarily separates the life of the Knights of the Kingdom from this and hits the bailout of the heavily damaged King's Capital. Your orders."

The task received is the transport of relief supplies. There was also the danger of the recent fluctuations, leaving the city for a long period of time, which was a knight's request to hit and put on.

And we're on our way to the city where we can rent horses and carriages that were still in the Wang capital and have less damage and relief supplies.

Alice accidentally zeroes in.

"... good"

"What?"

"Oh, no, look... I'm fine, 'cause I think I'm out"

I felt sorry for Alice, who told me to make some excuses. And I wanted to tell him I didn't need to worry anymore, and I answered strong.

"Ray has already survived his uncle's death, and he's trying to move on. You can't have my rival looking behind you forever."

"... Yeah, maybe."

So, that conversation was over.

The carriage kept rocking me for a while without a conversation, and now I'm going to talk to you.

Alice, I've made up my mind.

"What? What?

"Seems a little on track, I'm ashamed..."

But that's my new dream.

Because I want to talk to her.

I suppressed my embarrassment and told my dreams.

"I'm the strongest person in this world... no, I'll be the strongest creature. Because if I don't, my dreams won't come true. So I..."

Everyone wants to protect him too. To fulfill that endeavor, I am.

"─ Aim for the strongest in the world"

Say it, it makes me a little more shy. It's not weird to be laughed at, I thought. But Alice...

"The most powerful goal in the world... it's a long way from here."

"... yeah, very far away. But I've already made up my mind. Being alone as a knight doesn't protect what I want to protect. I can't protect them all, just being strong. So I will be the strongest knight that I can protect by myself, no matter what enemy I have."

Don't laugh, don't deny it, Alice. I'm relieved and exposed. Though it was my impatience, she listened calmly and nodded back.

"Oh well. Then we have to work hard."

"Yeah, I'll do my best."

"Well, if that mightiest knight stops getting lost or making a scene, it would be very helpful as far as I'm concerned... what about that one?

"Oh... I'll think about it."

I probably don't think I can... but let's do our best to include that.

"Phew, well, I'm Dickird. You have to keep an eye on me while you work hard. Ahhh, I'm in trouble, too. He's been missing for two years. If some knight could afford a meal, he'd be fine."

"Or when I think about it"

Alice gets better and laughs corny when she manages to nod as she gets a little anxious about her future life even though she hasn't done anything.

"Phew, so, you're hoping, mightiest knight?

With that said, Alice jumped off the carriage seat and hung out, looking like an old girl, not a knight, and I fell in love with her unexpectedly.

"Ugh, yeah."

I was embarrassed and couldn't fix Alice's face, and I turned away and replied.

"Ah...! I'm out of my sight now! I'm definitely gonna tease you!

"Chi, no! It's a misunderstanding, Alice!

To Alice, whom I doubt, the horse moves on a path I do not seem to have made.

With guttan guttan and occasional pebbles swaying.

I walked out for the strongest knight in the world.