Arc-7 Ch-41

First, there was just one person.

Before the soldier I’d completely caught off guard could even collapse to the ground, I’d already dashed forward.

When someone takes a powerful blow to the jaw, the brain shakes and they collapse. Father and the army officers taught me this, and during training I’d both knocked people down and been knocked down myself.

In all the dozens of mock battles I’d taken part in so far, I’d never once managed to drop an opponent by perfectly exploiting an opening. That showed just how difficult it was to knock someone down cleanly.

The soldier I’d just taken down probably never imagined he’d actually be floored for real. Honestly, I was more surprised than anyone that it had worked so perfectly.

In that case, I decided to keep going while I still had the momentum. In a real fight, the surest way to win was to attack first, attack again, and keep attacking relentlessly.

Even putting that aside, there were only about ten soldiers here, and I was facing them completely alone.

If I fought purely on the defensive, their numbers would overwhelm me. No matter how much stronger I was than others my age, I couldn’t avoid being overpowered by grown adults if I faced them head-on.

The only thing I could do was go wild and draw all of their attention onto me so Mother and the others could escape safely.

A man was someone who could put his life on the line for his family.

“Uooooraaaahhh!!”

“Wha!?”

For the moment, I leaped toward the soldier closest to me.

While still in midair, I thrust my right leg forward, holding my body in a flying kick posture, and slammed the sole of my foot into his chest with full force.

I’d been taught that with enough body weight and speed, even a child charging in could knock an adult down.

Things never went exactly as they did in training, but I had plenty of spirit and momentum. Above all, the opponent reacted slowly to a kid suddenly jumping at him.

The instant the thick sole of my boot struck his chest, I drove my right leg forward even harder.

The soldier who took the flying kick to the chest flew backward spectacularly. As I fell myself, I caught a glimpse of him crashing onto the ground.

That made two. It was a pretty good start for a surprise opening attack.

After delivering the kick, I couldn’t just remain sprawled on the ground. If an enemy attacked while I was crawling around, I wouldn’t even get the chance to stand up before it was over.

“This damn brat!”

As I hurriedly put strength into my legs and tried to get up, a nearby soldier thrust his fist straight at me with full power.

He came at me with a bare fist instead of a weapon. Did that mean he had no intention of killing me?

If that was the case, there might be an opening I could exploit.

I barely managed to block the incoming left fist with my right hand.

Sure enough, these soldiers were weaker than the troops in our territory, but many of them were bigger than me and stronger as well.

Even an idiot like me could understand that if we kept fighting head-on, the odds were heavily against me.

That was why I decided to use dirty and dangerous methods. Forgive me.

I thrust the same right hand I’d used to defend straight forward again, moving quickly.

There was no need to clench a fist. The more force you put into gripping, the stiffer your body became and the slower your movements grew.

I didn’t need to punch hard. A light whipping strike was enough.

Without forming a fist, I flexed my right hand like a whip and lightly struck around both eyes and the bridge of the soldier’s nose.

There was no need to attempt a proper eye gouge just to blind someone. This was one of the effective techniques Father had taught me not long ago.

Jabbing straight at the eyeballs with fingers could completely miss if the opponent ducked or tilted his head, and if you struck a hard part like the forehead you’d injure your own fingers instead.

But if you whipped your hand like this and smacked the face, the striking area became wider, you didn’t need much power, and you wouldn’t hurt your fingers.

When I struck his face exactly as I’d been taught, the soldier groaned from the impact and doubled over.

His head had conveniently dropped to the perfect height for me to hit. There was no way I’d let that chance slip by.

I clenched my left hand and swung it down diagonally from above with as much force as I could muster, smashing it into the right side of his head.

This was a vital point on the human body. If a trained and hardened soldier struck it with full power, it could certainly kill.

But with my current strength and training nowhere near enough, even swinging with everything I had could only knock him unconscious at best.

That made three down with a vital-point strike. There was still a long way to go.

I must’ve let my guard slip without realizing it.

The excitement of using real combat techniques for the first time, not just sibling scuffles or training against kids my age, probably made me careless.

My stamina had also been draining without me noticing, so at some point I’d started thinking the soldiers were politely taking turns coming at me one by one.

Suddenly I sensed a dangerous presence and whipped around. A soldier was charging straight at me with terrifying momentum.

From the look of him, he was one of the soldiers who had come to this village, and he was easily the biggest among them. Having someone that huge charging in to pin me down felt like being attacked by a bear or a wild boar, and sweat poured out of me all at once.

I’d trained in joint locks and throws, but those techniques were several times harder than striking. They required real knack and at least a certain level of size and muscle.

Against this giant, my arm strength would be completely useless. I’d simply be overpowered by force, I was sure of it.

Even if I thought I could dodge the charge, the situation was desperate. The ground around me was littered with the soldiers I’d already knocked down, making it impossible to move quickly.

While I hesitated, the giant closed the distance even further. There was no longer any space or time left to evade.

There was no helping it now.

I steeled myself.

I clenched my right hand as hard as I could, stepped forward, and moved straight toward the charging soldier.

Once again, my target was the jaw. No matter how large the enemy’s body was, a solid hit to the jaw would shake the brain and make it difficult for them to stand for a while.

With such a huge difference in weight, aiming for a vital point was the only path to victory I had.

Maybe my panic had started showing, or perhaps this giant was far more skilled than I’d imagined. The giant soldier tucked in his chin and shifted into a stance ready for a headbutt before charging straight at me.

I might’ve badly misjudged this one.

Compared to throws or joint locks, landing a strike that knocks someone down is relatively simple. Even an amateur’s punch can sometimes drop a trained opponent if it connects cleanly.

But that only happens when the blow lands on a vital point and carries proper body weight behind it.

In the current situation, the only place my punch would hit was the giant soldier’s forehead, one of the thickest and hardest parts of the skull.

If I smashed my fist full force into a spot like that, I’d be the one hurting my hand.

Even if it somehow landed perfectly, I still wouldn’t be able to stop the momentum of his charge. He’d plow straight through me, slam me to the ground, and pin me down by sheer force.

Trying to sidestep left or right would only slow me down and make it easier for him to catch me. That left only one escape route: downward.

I bent my knees and crouched so low that my body was almost scraping the ground.

The giant soldier looked confused for a moment, but a heavy body like his couldn’t react instantly.

This lowered posture was perfect for storing power. It followed the same principle as compressing a spring as tightly as possible so it snaps back with maximum force.

From bottom right to top left, I exploded upward with full power. My knees and hips straightened violently as I drove the fist that had been hovering near the ground diagonally upward with everything I had.

My target was the giant soldier’s jaw.

But I don’t know whether his reaction speed was far greater than I’d expected or whether my sudden change in angle threw off my aim.

All I know is that my fist completely missed the jaw. It slid past his chest plate and buried itself deep in his stomach instead.

“Guh!?”

The giant soldier let out a choked groan when the unexpected blow struck from below.

When unprotected soft tissue like the abdomen takes a direct hit, the shock damages all sorts of internal organs.

Sharp pain, dull throbbing, shortness of breath, nausea strong enough to make you vomit, a whole range of unpleasant sensations.

But does it reliably knock someone down for a while the way a blow to the head does? Not really. Most of the time it just leaves them writhing in agony.

Someone with real grit might get furious and keep attacking anyway. Not long ago when I fought with big sister, she got so angry she hit back hard enough to make me give up.

Still, I doubted this giant had the same stubbornness as big sister. Right now he was clutching his stomach and retching.

That made four down, right? Please let this count as number four.

Before I could even catch my breath, the fifth one rushed in.

I tried to raise both arms into a guard. That was when a sharp pain stabbed through me.

I instinctively jumped back to dodge while quickly checking my body to find the source of the problem.

My right arm. Something was wrong with my right arm.

From the wrist down it was numb. I couldn’t put any strength into it or form a proper fist.

I desperately kept my distance while attacking with my left hand. Little by little, the numbness in my right arm began to fade. It was quickly replaced by searing pain.

The cause was probably when I punched the giant’s stomach earlier. Maybe my fist had landed poorly, or maybe his abdominal muscles were far harder than I’d expected. I didn’t know which.

Either way, my right arm hurt like hell. It was probably badly swollen, though I doubted he could see it from where he stood.

I didn’t think the bone was broken, but I’d definitely twisted something. I couldn’t put proper power into it, so my attacks had become monotonous strikes using only my left hand.

The fifth soldier wasn’t particularly strong. The giant had probably been superior to him in both power and speed.

Yet because my right arm was injured, this guy felt like the toughest opponent so far. At the very least, the injury had clearly lowered my chances of winning.

The more I moved, the more my right arm throbbed, and the harder it became to think clearly. Pain filled my head completely.

I was only standing here breathing, yet sweat kept pouring off me as if I’d been sprinting at full speed nonstop.

Worst of all, even I could tell my movements had lost all sharpness. It was taking me more than twice as long as before to finish off this fifth guy.

Time kept passing while I remained stuck like this. The soldiers I’d knocked down earlier might recover at any moment, and the anxiety kept building.

Or maybe, if the goal was simply to buy time for Mother and the others to escape, it might actually be better for me to stay here and keep drawing their attention.

No good. The pain was making it impossible to think straight.

The one thing I could clearly see was that the soldier I was fighting now was grinning at me, smirking with satisfaction.

I could feel my own breathing falling apart. He must’ve thought that a worn-out me couldn’t attack properly anymore.

Sure, my build might be good, but that was only compared to others my age. Any normal grown man still had both height and weight over me.

He seemed fully aware of that fact. He was using the reach of his arms and legs to attack from just outside my range. It was infuriatingly underhanded.

On top of that, he was toying with me. Light jabs, slaps, kicks, again and again.

Whenever I tried to counter, he read the distance perfectly and stepped back the moment I moved. It was driving me crazy.

Damn it. If only my right arm worked properly, I wouldn’t lose to a guy like this.

“Ah!”

I instinctively raised my right arm to block an incoming kick. Each time, excruciating pain shot through it and a grunt escaped my lips.

Seeing me suffer, the soldier twisted his mouth into a triumphant sneer.

The same thing repeated again and again, and slowly the balance inside my head shifted. Anger began to overpower the pain.

Enough. I’d made up my mind.

I was the one who’d picked a fight against more than ten grown men all by myself. There was nothing left to be afraid of anymore.

I deliberately lowered my right arm slightly below my left, holding it in a sloppy guard.

The way I stopped moving looked obviously fake. It was perfect bait to lure him in.

The soldier, completely absorbed in tormenting me while I visibly endured the pain, seemed to buy it completely.

Eager to hurt me even more, he stepped closer than before and unleashed an even stronger kick.

“What!?”

“Don’t fall for something this obvious, idiot.”

The one who cried out in surprise wasn’t me.

It was the soldier.

The kick He had unleashed with all his momentum somehow ended up firmly caught in both of my arms.

The pain had already been constant for a while, so I figured I could endure it if it only worsened a little. I deliberately took the kick with my right arm and clamped down hard with both hands before he could pull it back.

The soldier frantically tried to yank his leg free, but it was pointless. The reason was simple: humans are creatures that stand on two legs.

Sure, you can balance on one leg, but it’s an extremely unstable position.

An adult standing on one foot can be easily toppled even by a child’s strength. More importantly, running, jumping, swimming, all forms of movement become impossible without both legs.

That’s why you must be extremely careful whenever you kick an opponent in a fight. That lesson had been drilled into me over and over during training.

This soldier had been attacking me however he pleased, but he became so absorbed in tormenting his enemy that he left himself completely open. That was how the tables turned.

I took several steps backward while still gripping his leg, and the soldier collapsed backward in an unsightly sprawl, landing flat on his back. With his leg trapped like that, he couldn’t even take a proper fall.

I kept both arms locked around his leg so he couldn’t escape and relentlessly stomped down again and again on his stomach and chest.

Naturally, I made sure not to repeat the same mistake he had made. Every time I stomped, I paid the utmost attention.

Each stomp drew a filthy scream from him, but I couldn’t let my guard down until he stopped moving completely. If I didn’t finish him off thoroughly, he might come at me again later.

I only released his leg after the prints of my boots were clearly stamped across his stomach and chest and he finally stopped screaming.

That made five. It was a miserable victory for me, yet somehow I still felt like the loser.

“A-are you okay…?”

“Argh!?”

“Eek!? I-I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!!”

Someone called out from behind me. I whipped my head around and growled in warning, which made the elven woman flinch and hurriedly apologize.

My head still wasn’t working properly after the heat of battle. Who was she again…?

…Right. Yumeria-san.

I remembered now. I’d seen Yumeria-san collapse and thought that if my family were captured, the same thing would happen to them, so I started fighting the soldiers.

At some point I’d completely forgotten my original goal and became obsessed with simply beating the hell out of them.

As my emotions began to settle, pain started screaming from every part of my body. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I could remain conscious much longer.

Even so, there were still about half the soldiers left standing. I would probably collapse before I could take them all down.

“Well now, what a gruesome scene. To think that a single boy could defeat five soldiers. You’re truly a terrifying child.”

A voice echoed around me. I couldn’t tell whether it sounded stunned or mocking.

Turning around felt like too much effort, so I only shifted my eyes toward the direction of the sound. A soldier in leather armor stood there, peering at me as though appraising my condition.

The aura he gave off was clearly different from the other soldiers. I remembered him as the intermediary who had spoken with the important elf earlier.

There was no doubt about it. This man was the commander.

If that was the case, wouldn’t taking him down buy even more time?

The thought made me try to spring forward into an attack stance, but my body refused to cooperate.

Every inch of me hurt so badly that I couldn’t move properly. Instead, I simply staggered.

Even so, I couldn’t show weakness. That was true enough in a fight, but for nobles it was even worse. Show the slightest opening and other nobles would target you for the rest of your life.

“Good grief. You’re like a rabid dog that bites anything in sight without discrimination. That sort of behavior reveals exactly what kind of upbringing you had.”

“The hell did you just say, you bastard!?”

“If you truly are the son of some renowned noble house, perhaps you should conduct yourself accordingly. For starters, may I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

“I ain’t got a name worth giving scum like you, dumbass!!”

There was no way I could let them learn my face and name. If they had that information, we’d be cornered even further.

According to Father, no one knew how many days it would take for reinforcements to arrive from the royal capital. As long as we avoided capture until then, we would win.

But if they learned our identities and began making plans based on that, we would have absolutely no way to fight back in our current state.

On top of that, Father was away exploring the ruins that were supposedly located beneath the dungeon. The only way I could think of to turn this around was to defeat the man standing right in front of me.

“Well, no matter. We can simply make you confess after we capture you.”

“Wait. You intend to take this boy into custody?”

“Of course. After all, our soldiers have been injured. Five men taken down by a single boy. This is a grave matter that demands the strictest response.”

“You bastards are just weak, that’s all!!”

“My, my, how frightening. Just last night, more than ten elves were assaulted by nobles in a tragic incident within the city. We have been dealing with the aftermath since morning. This boy is suspected of being connected to the incident. We have no choice but to apprehend him and extract the necessary information.”

“Try it. I’ll smash that smug face of yours in.”

“Indeed, if you and I were to fight one on one, the conditions would be somewhat unfavorable for me. There is a high chance I would lose. Therefore, I have prepared appropriate measures.”

“What…?”

Before I could leap at him, the man in leather armor casually raised his hand.

At once, a large number of men began emerging from the forest and walking toward us.

Several groups appeared, adding up to roughly twice the number the man in leather armor had originally brought.

There was no way I could defeat all of them. Even if I used the pistol I had let go of earlier, my bullets would run out first.

The important elf, who had maintained a calm expression until now, had his face stiffen. Yumeria-san looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.

“This village had already been surrounded by us from the very beginning. I came here purely to negotiate a peaceful resolution, but I had already made all the arrangements to switch to forced intervention at any moment.”

“When that man was appointed the new village chief, we came to an agreement through discussion. You promised that you would not interfere in any way with the city’s administration. In exchange, we would not interfere with those who wished to continue living according to the old ways.

Given the circumstances, we cannot overlook the harboring of lawless elements that disrupt public order in the city, not when we are the ones tasked with maintaining security.”

“We ain’t lawless!!”

“You are free to believe that, but the current reality is that my subordinates have been injured by your violence. A situation of this magnitude requires an appropriate number of personnel to handle it.”

Damn it. When it came to smooth talking, I wasn’t anywhere near this guy’s level. In short, the ones trying to force their way in here to conduct a search were basically acting like military police. They had the moral high ground and the justification on their side.

Even if they did horrible things to the elves, they were the ones with the righteous cause. That made me, the guy who had punched them, the villain.

But if I abandoned the elves who had sheltered us and ran away, then I’d be the ungrateful one. Besides, the area was already surrounded and under watch, so slipping through the forest with Mother, who had shrunk back in fear, and my little sisters would be nearly impossible.

No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with any way to turn this situation around.

“So since you can’t win one-on-one, you just overwhelm with numbers? And you still call yourself a man?”

“You seem to be misunderstanding something. I didn’t come here to compete in a test of strength.”

“Haaah!?”

“Could you please refrain from barking like a dog? It really reveals your lack of class.”

“The hell did you just say, you bastard!!”

“My, how frightening. You seem to think that defeating every enemy in front of you equals victory, but my goal is different. My victory condition is to fully carry out my superior’s orders. In other words, fighting you is merely one possible method. I don’t actually need to win against you personally. Sending my subordinates to provoke you and wear you down through combat is, in fact, a perfectly legitimate tactic.”

“So you used your own men as disposable pawns? You’re a real piece of shit.”

“Feel free to call me whatever you like. It’s the same as a board game. Having one exceptionally strong piece doesn’t guarantee victory. And even if none of your own pieces remain, as long as you take the king, you win.”

Being told so logically that I had already lost pissed me off to the core.

I tried to force strength into my body, thinking that maybe I could at least land one solid punch. But even just standing here made every part of me ache.

Come to think of it, this was my first real fight outside of training. Taking down five weak soldiers and calling it a day felt far too pathetic.

I remembered that Father had left home at the same age as Big Brother and made a name for himself as a soldier in the kingdom’s army, earning military achievements. Compared to that, I was still weak and stupid.

At the very least, if I could take out this commander right here, wouldn’t that be kind of cool?

The hazy thought drifted through my mind, but I quickly shook my head.

Sure, if Father heard that I had no choice but to kill enemies in order to protect Mother and the others, he probably wouldn’t blame me.

But if I killed this man in the leather armor, his subordinates would definitely lose their minds and come after me to kill me in revenge. There was no doubt that the village elves, along with Mother and the others, would get caught in the crossfire.

The worst possible future flashed vividly in my mind. I no longer had the fighting spirit left to drag the people who had sheltered my family and us into a battle.

What was this? I had always thought that a first real fight would be something more glorious.

Instead, it felt like a drunken brawl between barflies. It wasn’t cool at all.

The stories of heroes who distinguished themselves in the previous war, and the tales the feudal soldiers told about Father’s exploits on the battlefield, had all sounded far more magnificent.

I’d thought that since I was bigger than most boys my age in the Bartfort territory and trained regularly, I’d be able to shine more than this.

Yet the only ones I had managed to take down cleanly were the first three. After that, everything had turned into a sloppy mess, and now I was even injured.

If this was how I performed, I would probably die easily the moment I stepped onto a real, intense battlefield.

While I was absentmindedly thinking those things, I noticed something swaying and shining as it approached.

It was hair. Beautiful golden hair.

The moment my eyes could clearly make it out, the most unpleasant premonition I had felt all day struck me. It was by far the worst one today.

As the figure grew larger, she would probably look like an unbelievably cute girl to anyone else.

But within my own family, she was recognized as the single most dangerous person in our territory to anger.

Right now, I wanted to run away. But the pain from my injuries made it feel impossible to move quickly enough. While I panicked, she kept coming closer and closer.

There was no helping it. Time to steel myself. Surely she would understand once I explained.

“U-um, Mother…”

“You foolish son of mine!!!!”

Mother’s furious roar echoed through the forest, and my head was struck with all her strength.

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Authors Note  

┻━⁠━━━━⁠━━⁠━━━⁠┻  

It had been a little while, but I’ve resumed posting.

This chapter centers on Leah-kun’s first real battle.

Even with talent, it’s difficult for a boy in his early teens to defeat adult soldiers with his bare hands, so the second half shows him struggling hard.

In fact, Leah-kun ranks quite high even among his peers in the Holfort Kingdom, where the overall quality of soldiers is generally above average compared to other countries. However, his points of comparison are the Saintess and the heroes who shone in the most recent war, as well as his own biological father. The gap between reality and those ideals has completely crushed him.

Let’s look forward to his future growth.

Also, at the same time as the release of Book Version Marie Route Volume 5, “The Story of a Village Girl Being Stalked by the Strongest Hero Who Saved the World,” written by Shiori Jun-sensei, the previous comic artist, is also being released. I’ve been enjoying the happiness of writing while reading it beside my newly replaced laptop.

The next chapter will feature the terrifying Angie The MOTHER (loli) in action. The pen is mightier than the sword.

P.S.: At the commissioner’s request, W-sama, Doogge-sama, and Emitto-sama kindly drew illustrations for me.

Also, the illustration previously received from 9430-sama has been posted on pixiv.

Thank you very much.

W-sama　Pixiv（Adult content warning）

Doogge-sama　Pixiv（Adult content warning）

Emitto-sama　Pixiv（Adult content warning）

9430-sama　Pixiv

I’d greatly appreciate any opinions or impressions. They would be a big encouragement for future chapters.