NOVEL NEXT Chapter 366: A Hero For Whose Sake?
Chapter 366: A Hero For Whose Sake?
<Author's Notes>
The chapter ended up being more complicated than I expected, and I couldn't update in time for the 9:00 pm scheduled update.
Anyhow, we have received one new review since the last update.
Thank you very much.
Also, thank you for all the congratulations since the last update.
Receiving so many words of congratulations like this Even though I feel like I'm reaching my limits, I feel glad to have come this far in writing all of this.
The frontline on the left wing was also in turmoil.
With Sacraments as their opponents, they don't exude any Tyrant's Miasma that would weaken the inhabitants of this world.
Perhaps because of this, there was an impression that their movements weren't so bad.
The left-wing army was mainly made up of the mixed army.
The Alion army led by Duke Polarie was also incorporated into it.
Many of them have been through the battle in the Anti-Demon White Castle.
Slashing down a Sacrament from his horse, a knight who stood by Duke Polarie's side raised his voice.
[Duke! Please step back a little!]
Duke Polarie pierces the Sacrament in the face with his spear.
[They aren't much when it's one-on-one but the wave of enemies doesn't seem to end]
The enemy surges unceasingly.
The formation they had laid out was starting to collapse.
The Sacraments close in in that "opening" they had opened.
The hole was gradually being breached, and a chaotic struggle ensued within the formation.
Swinging his spear above his head
[Moreover, those medium-sized ones]
Duke Polarie changed the direction of the spearhead and pierced through a Sacrament.
[They're troublesome! Moreover]
Its body sprays white blood on the ground.
The blood made a sizzling sound as it disappeared.
It looks as if it's evaporating.
Duke Polarie grits his teeth.
[Ghfuuu]
They're approaching, giant Sacraments.
Giants.
[Artillery and Crossbow Units, prepare to intercept! Everyone secure the perimeter and protect the two units]
[Duke! Over there!]
One of the knights pointed in another direction.
[That is- Ayaka-dono!]
Sogou Ayaka approaches the front line on her Unique Silver Horse.
She's aiming for a medium-sized Sacrament that the soldiers are struggling against.
[Ayaka-dono! Be cautious not only of the large ones over there but also of those medium-sized Sacraments! It seems each of them uses a different weapon! Moreover, their combat abilities are strangely high compared to the regular-sized Sacraments!]
Passing her way through
[Thank you for the information, Polarie-san.]
Ayaka said, lightly levitating spears on her horse.
Thereupon, clutching it tightly
Fwooosh!
She threw it.
Noticing the approaching spear, the medium-sized Sacrament raised a roar.
It struck the flying spear away with its battleaxe.
However, it seems like Ayaka's attack was intended to temporarily stop its attack on her surrounding allies.
The silver ball "Silver World" that had appeared in the sky overhead. (T/N: Armament Battle Formation/Silver World)
As if it were expanding, it had become huge.
The next moment- The silver ball popped.
Ayaka generated floating weapons around her.
In addition, Unique Knights- silver knights fall from the sky.
With her floating weapons around, Sogou Ayaka leads the way.
The number of silver knights armed with swords, which must be more than 200, follows.
Blowing away the Alion soldiers in front of it, the medium-sized Sacrament focused its attention on Ayaka.
The medium-sized Sacrament, taking a stance, rushes towards her.
However, Ayaka doesn't stop.
In her hand is a silver unique sword.
The other Sacraments pressed through her allies' defenses, but Ayaka did not let them get close.
At this point, the regular Sacraments can't even be considered obstacles anymore.
With each powerful kick of her horse's hooves, solid mud splashed into the air.
An ally notices Ayaka and clears a path.
With Ayaka's charge, the Sacraments were blown away by the floating weapons within range.
Swoosh
Letting out a sigh, the enemy finally entered her range.
Ayaka directs the tip of her unique sword toward the medium-sized Sacrament.
Thereupon, the weapons floating around her attacked furiously.
The medium-sized Sacrament desperately tried to strike them down, but it was overwhelmed by the amount of swords attacking it.
Violence in numbers.
The medium-sized Sacrament could only feel helpless-
It was torn to pieces.
Not stopping there, Ayaka releases her floating weapons at the other Sacraments within range.
Sometime later, the silver knights catch up.
Prioritizing support for struggling allies, she slashed down the Sacraments with her swords.
[Next.]
Ayaka sets a giant Sacrament as her next target.
Her allies were already retreating in the areas where the giant Sacraments were approaching.
[..]
Sacraments with a size of about 30 meters.
However, Ayaka doesn't see them as a problem.
She drives her unique silver horse forward.
Contrary to her allies who are slowly retreating
The Silver Hero approached a giant Sacrament with determination, not a single doubt in her heart.
[It's Ayaka-dono! Ayaka-dono has come!]
[Hero-sama!]
Cheers arose.
[Alright! Don't let the little ones get in the way of Ayaka-dono!]
[Everyone, let's go!]
Protect.
Protect the people.
That was all the thought in Ayaka's mind.
Dang!
An exceptionally powerful solid sound.
Her unique silver horse kicked the ground with its hind legs and leapt.
Aiming towards the giant Sacrament.
The giant Sacrament swings the large flail in its grip.
Intending to strike down the approaching enemy
Buooon!
However, the unique sword Ayaka held became huge.
As the flail comes attacking, she moves diagonally against the giant Sacrament
ZUBAAAAAAN!
Cut in half with one sword strike. A decisive sword slash.
Furthermore, Ayaka kicked the horse's body and jumped into the air.
Then She struck down the Sacrament with an overhead slash.
After her swing, wings flew out from the eyes of the Sacrament, which is split down to its groin.
The giant Sacrament, divided into four parts, falls down with a loud sound.
Soon after, the giant Sacrament began to dissolve in a cloud of smoke.
After a pause of a few seconds, loud cheers erupted.
[As expected of Ayaka-dono!]
[That's no surprise! She's someone who can easily beat even Human-Faceds after all!]
[We can win With her on our side, we can win! No matter what enemy comes, we're gonna win!]
[And she's cute too!]
Voices of praise are raised here and there.
While hearing those voices behind her, Ayaka began to move.
She felt a slight sense of guilt and embarrassment.
Since she went to stop the fight between Mimori Touka and Kirihara Takuto
Thinking back on how much she's recovered so far since then
She isn't the kind of person who can be praised like that.
(However)
At that moment, her thoughts stopped.
Because in the midst of her sprint, she caught sight of "what she seemed to be looking for".
[Found it.]
A dense cluster of Sacraments.
They were circling up, as if they had formed a defensive circle.
In the center of that circle There should be a "human" directing the Sacraments.
A voice from the center of the circle reached her ears.
[A- As expected, it's Ayaka Sogou! Guh Ei, Sacraments! Protect us! You must buy us time! Everyone, retreat!]
Ayaka effortlessly sends the gathering Sacraments flying.
Thereupon, she could see people with noble-style armor riding on half-horse Sacraments.
Perhaps
These people giving instructions to the Sacraments were Alion nobles who were connected to the Goddess.
Ayaka speeds up her horse and approaches.
Hearing her approach, a female noble who seemed to be the highest ranking of the group turned around
[GYAAAAAAHHH, SHE'S HEEEEEEERE! IT'S THE MONSTEEEEEEERRR!]
[.]
A blunted floating weapon strikes her down.
[Ghuooo!?]
The escort knights around here were also struck by the floating weapons.
All the half-horse Sacraments were killed.
As for the humans, they had all fallen off their horses and fainted- or so Ayaka thinks.
(If I'm not mistaken Goddess-sa- Vysis just sends some sort of energy into the Sacraments to strengthen them and she's unable to give minute details from Alion to here That's why, she had sent out these nobles and other people who had connections with the Goddess to act as the commanders.)
If these commanders are thwarted, the coordination of the Sacraments will be disrupted.
This will weaken them.
But of course, the commanders are protected by a thick wall of Sacraments.
Thus, Ayaka's role- her priority is to crush these commanders.
Ayaka carried the woman who looked like the "boss" and let the silver knights carry the others.
Then, she returns to the rear once more.
[We might get information from them. Please handle her.]
After saying this, she left the woman and the others with her allies in the rear and returned to the front line again.
[.]
With floating weapons and silver knights in tow, she runs across the battlefield.
However, a single thought crossed her mind.
Human opponents really are more difficult for her to deal with.
A giant Sacrament enters her sight.
Seeing it though, she started wondering.
How did they prepare that full plate armor it's wearing?
Perhaps because of that armor, the allied forces' offensive techniques and arrows have little effect on them.
Furthermore, she's throwing iron balls the size of a human head like buckshot pellets.
Seeing this, Ayaka transforms her floating weapons into shields protecting her allies as much as possible.
At the same time, Ayaka transforms the weapon she has on hand into a morning star.
The speed of the unique silver horse increases.
And then, she swings the spiked sphere at the end of the chain.
Fwoosh Fwoooooooooooosh
Making use of the centrifugal force, the spiked sphere started gaining momentum.
The full-body-armored giant notices Ayaka and throws its iron balls at her like rain.
All of those iron balls were struck away by the floating weapons.
[ ! ]
The full-body-armored giant reached in surprise.
Hyuuuhhh
Immediately after the sound of wind being torn through echoed, the iron ball part at the end of the morning star becomes huge.
The iron ball, now almost the size of the full-body-armored giant, explodes with a metallic sound.
The entire armor of the giant Sacrament is blasted to pieces.
Signaling the death of the Sacrament, wings sprouted out of its eyes and white rain rained down.
Ayaka disregards it though, rushing through underneath it.
The ones she's aiming for are the people acting as the commanders and the giant Sacraments.
She also defeats the medium-sized ones she comes across along the way.
Meanwhile, the silver knights started assisting her allies who were at a disadvantage.
This is- currently her role on this battlefield.
Cheers from her allies rose from behind her, in the area she had left behind just a moment ago.
[We can't let ourselves be left behind either! Everyone, follow Hero Ayaka!]
[OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!]
Hearing their cries, Ayaka pondered.
Her power can help someone.
Her power can save someone.
Her power can cheer someone up.
Just like how she did just now
[.]
And at that moment, a question she has always had since the first time she came to this world crosses her mind.
What is a Hero?
She had always been referred to as one of the Heroes from Another World.
It's just
She had been feeling rather averse to being called Hero.
They were words that sounded unpleasant to her ears.
It was a title that made her feel like she was being forced to be a Hero.
She felt as if the expectations and desire for courage had been imposed on her by the masses.
"Hero"
It now even feels like a cursed word to her.
is what she should have thought before
However
Somehow, that isn't the case anymore.
Cattleya had said so
"You have the courage to condemn yourself. Those are the qualities of a "Hero"."
Thinking about it again- Her true nature probably may have really been that way.
But now
At the very least, she wants to be the "Hero" everyone wants her to be.
Until this battle ends
What exactly is a Hero?
The answer to this question may be surprisingly uncomplicated.
After all, it's all very simple, isn't it?
Yes.
Heroes, they were originally-
"Those who give courage to someone"
<Author's Notes>
Today, January 25th (Thursday), LN Volume 11.5 and manga's Volume 9 of "I Became the Strongest With The Failure FrameAbnormal State SkillAs I Devastated Everything" went on sale.
LN Volume 11.5 is completely made up of newly written content, which one could say feels like a gaiden story. (T/N: Gaiden stories are literally translated as "side stories", but this is more of a supplementary biography)
With an anime adaptation coming out soon, some might view it as "You bringing out a gaiden story now? Isn't this just a way to stretch out the story?" which I can't exactly deny (wipes sweat)
However, since the Light Novel is advertised as "the story of Touka and Seras", it seems fitting to include Seras' background story somewhere is what I have been thinking for a while now. That said, inserting it directly into the main story would make it too lengthy, and personally, I wasn't inclined to include it in the regular numbering of the main series. And so, the idea that came up was that "If it's presented as a gaiden story, it might work. Considering the situation, it seemed like there was no better time to insert it", which is how it ended up being published as Volume 11.5. In that sense, I'm grateful for the opportunity and chance to write this gaiden story.
In this gaiden story, it depicts Seras being exiled from the High Elf country and her subsequent journey to become the Holy Knight Leader in the Holy Kingdom of Neia. Furthermore, towards the end part and in the epilogue, the timeline returns to the present. Thanks to this, it makes the reader feel like it's a volume between Volume 11 and Volume 12. (Even in the early to middle parts, there are occasional returns to the present timeline, so Touka also makes occasional appearances). Well, as for how to handle "that thing" towards the end of the light I'm not really sure how to do that, but I hope you'll look forward to that in the future as well.
The main plot delves into the character of Seras Ashrain. It explores Seras' parents, her homeland hidden within the Great Illusion, what her homeland is like, why she was exiled from her homeland, and her relationships with Touka, Cattleya, and the members of the Holy Knight Order during her time in the Holy Kingdom of Neia (also features nostalgic figures like the Holy King Ortora and Monk Dorogetti). We hope you will enjoy the story of the other members of the Holy Knight Order other than Seras, and find it interesting to discover more about their characters.
Setting aside from the usual cover, the illustrations, almost exclusively centered around Seras, (including her childhood), were drawn by KWKM-sama. In addition to Seras, this volume also features illustrations of Machia Renaufia, the current Holy Knight Leader (former Vice Leader) after Seras is gone. Furthermore, her Chant Incantations are showcased in the story. Other scenes include Cattleya in a swimsuit Also, there's actually "only briefly" a scene depicting Seras' mother.
Also, the manga's Volume 9 covers the story up to the end of LN Volume 4. Towards the end of Volume 4, Seras' feelings towards Touka take a step forward. The manga will start depicting Volume 5 in the next volume, which I'm looking forward to.
That would be it for the extensive announcements (promotions) as usual.
The next chapter will be from Touka's POV.