Chapter 284 (1/2)

It was right on the morning of the third day after Kain’s group accepted Reina’s request. Birds fluttered about in Elarc’s blue sky, and their light chirps resounded.

The shopkeeper of the Dark Green Bear was stretching with all he had in front of the shop.

「Nn, nnnー! AHー! What great weather!」

While yeilding his body to the refreshing feeling after having stretched with all he had, the shopkeeper twisted his body and made it crack.

When the shopkeeper opened the door to go back inside, there was a harsh sound that was made.

After messing with the door whose fitting was a bit bad, he noticed that it seemed that the metal fixtures of the hinges were worn out.

Thinking “I guess I can’t do anything about it unless I call the carpenter……”, he looked up at the sky.

With the weather being this great today, it seemed like the carpenter would be busy going about here and there but, would he come here?

If it was at the level of metal fixtures being a bit bad, it felt like it would be put off for later.

After all, there were many places that should be prioritized. It wasn’t like the ruins of the Alva attack that came earlier had been repaired yet.

He felt that that sort of thing wouldn’t happen often, but it wasn’t like the First Princess Narika’s army wouldn’t come anymore.

As expected, since there was no way she would just go about killing the citizens, he wasn’t worried about his life in that regard, but that didn’t mean that the buildings would be completely undamaged.

「Well, Celis-sama would be much better than Narika-sama though……」

When the shopkeeper fiddled with the metal fixture while thinking “come to think of it, didn’t I have some replacement metal fixtures somewhere……”, *pakin*, the sound of something breaking could be heard from somewhere.

「Geh……Could it be that I broke it!?」

But after thinking about it more clearly, the sound just now wasn’t from fiddling with the door, but was heard from above.

In that case, was there something up with the signboard’s anchorage? Thinking that, the shopkeeper hurriedly looked up at the sky……and his movements stopped just like that.

What was there, was a cracked sky.

*Parin* A sound like something was breaking was made once again, and a richly colored space was created within the blue sky.

……Heavily, black hands came extending out from there. Slow, and heavily.

Bright red eyes could be seen. Pitch black horns, and a pitch black bodies. Long and very sharp claws, and wings like those of a bat.

The shopkeeper knew what that was.

「A……」

They spread their wings underneath the blue sky, and came spilling out from here and there in the sky.

「They’re Alvaaaaaaaaaa!?」

The Alva which were said to be able to easily drive a small village to annihilation with even a single one of them.

A group of those Alva that reached the tens of them were released into Elarc’s sky.

「Gigeeeaaaaaaa!」

「Gyaaah!?」

The fireball an Alva fired burned a male Adventurer that tried to cut it down.

The iron sword fell from the male Adventurer that became burnt black and had collapsed, and a *gashan* sound resounded on the stone paving.

Seeing that, a male spearman clad in blue armor shouted with a pained face.

「Jonas! Dammit……Oi, Rigel! Put up the magic barrier! We’ll decide this all at once……Oi, Rigel!?」

「Giiiioooo.」

What lay at the end of the gaze of the male spearman that turned around was an Alva that repeatedly trampled on the corpse of the heavy armor knight that should have been protecting his back, and the figure of another Alva that pierced through the chest of a male magician.

「Rigel……!? Y, you damned Mazoku!」

The spear that the male spearman thrust out pierced through the head of the Alva that tormented the male magician.

Without even a death cry, the Alva turned into black particles and vanished, and the male magician that had his chest pierced through limply collapsed to the ground.

However, the male spearman didn’t even have the time to hold him up. It was because the two Alva that slaughtered the swordsman and heavy armor knight earlier had set their eyes on the male spearman.

「……I’ll do this. I’ll fuckin’ do thisss!!」

The male spearman started running, and his spear clashed with the Alva’s claws.

Here and there throughout the town of Elarc, similar battles were unfolding.

Elarc was the Canal Kingdom’s capital city, and even its population was remarkably different from the surrounding towns.

Naturally, many knights that protected the citizens were deployed here, and their headquarters was placed here.

The ones protecting the Canal Kingdom’s populace were the Swords of Light Chivalric Order, the Shields of Light Chivalric Order, and the Staves of Light Chivalric Order. And in addition to that, the Elarc Defense Chivalric Order existed.

They were truly an iron wall defense, and if things were normal, the city wouldn’t fall with the Alva coming to attack by the tens.

However, the ones in the current Elarc were only the Swords of Light Chivalric Order, and the Elarc Defense Chivalric Order, which couldn’t be said to be elite soldiers when compared to the Swords of Light Chivalric Order.

In this situation where the Imperial Knight Chivalric Order that protected the royal castle weren’t there, the Swords of Light Chivalric Order had no choice but to act while giving maximum priority to the royal family’s safety. Even if Reina, who was extolled as the legendary Maid Knight, was there, the knights’ loyalty towards the royal family wasn’t cheap or light enough for them to leave everything to her.

However, their chivalry wasn’t rotten enough that they would think that it would be fine no matter how many of the citizens lives were lost either.

That complication had tormented them. But even while suffering through that, they were unable to do anything but intercept the Alva while protecting the citizens that came to the vicinity of the royal castle.

While knowing that they should be the ones out there fighting, the members of the Swords of Light Chivalric Order could do nothing but pray for the Elarc Defense Chivalric Order’s strenuous efforts.

On the other hand, the Elarc Defense Chivalric Order all far surpassed their limits.

Even though they would normally only patrol the local areas, the current Elarc Defense Chivalric Order was in a position where they needed to be vigilant of attacks that came from the outside.

It was necessary for them to go up against Goblins and Beastia, and even the occasional Ogre that came along. Even the fact that the repair of the main gate was advancing slowly was a source of distress.

Plus, there was also the problem of the First Princess’s army that they needed to be vigilant of the most.