Vol 1 Chapter 25 (2/2)
“I’m going!”
Calling out with vigor, Leticia leapt down from the ramparts.
She ran straight through the dust raised by the explosions.
Appearing from within the dust cloud, she stabbed at a monster with a serpentine body and a wolf-like head.
The monsters once again screamed in agony as they died.
Monster blood flew through the air.
Smelling that, the surrounding monsters all noticed Leticia, and focused their hostilities on her.
With strength beyond humans, strong magic wreaking havoc, and an innate cruelty, their battle instincts overcame her intimidation and attacked her with their fangs.
The quadrupedal demonic beasts had overwhelming mobility and a primitive impulse to slaughter, and one by one, they all attacked Leticia.
Yet, the intelligent humanoid devils, without minding the monsters that should have been their allies, fired magic at the crowd.
It was an overwhelmingly unbalanced battle of one against many.[3]
However, Leticia cut down the charging monsters, her weapon cutting through the monsters like b.u.t.ter.[4]
Unable to dodge the spells, she used the monsters as s.h.i.+elds.
Before her eyes, she became drenched in the blood of the monsters.
Incited by the smell of blood, more monsters attacked.
The monsters who were much larger Leticia’s small body and the quadrupedal demonic beasts making use of their agility, they all turned into corpses.
Who knew how much time had pa.s.sed since the beginning of the battle?
In order to avoid hitting her, the soldiers aimed their arrows at monsters far away from her. But now, with their arrows used up, they merely observed the battle with awe.
Even Tiara. who had used powerful magic to bombard the monsters, had already used up her magic power, and was observing Leticia’s fight while breathing heavily.
Even after defeating so many of them, the seemingly endless stream of monsters gushed forward.
“Guh…”
Leticia’s left arm was grazed by a monster’s claw, and bled.
She was extremely exhausted.
Her breathing was uneven.
Though her injured left arm hurt a lot, she didn’t say a word.
The claw must have been covered in poison.
She thought that it was lucky that it only paralyzed a part of her body.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!”
Swinging the sword with her right hand while shouting, Leticia cut down the monster, and searched for another target.
However—
When she came to her senses, there were no more monsters around her.
At some point, the monsters who surrounded her had retreated from the reach of her sword.
When she stepped forward, the monsters in front of her stepped back a step.
The monsters who knew nothing but slaughter, were frightened.
The people gathered on the ramparts looked on, mouths wide open, at the unbelievable scene.
‘Now!’
The tip of Leticia’s sword shone.
As in the beginning of the battle, the sphere of light rapidly expanded.
‘More, more, more power!’
Devoting the rest of her magic power, it expanded to the point that it was larger than her.
The monsters understood it instinctually:
That ball of light contained considerable amounts of magic power.
It rivalled, or maybe exceeded, the power of their Demon Lord.
The monsters in front of the sword slowly backed away— and then scrambled away.
With that as a signal, the monsters besieging the fort also fled.
Then—
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Leticia screamed as she fired the ball of light, which mowed down the monsters in front of her.
The world was bathed in a flash of brilliant light.
There was a deafening roar and a blinding light.
Eventually, as the echoes ceased, and their sight returned, the people saw an unbelievable sight before them.
The ground had been gouged out in a straight line into the horizon.
The top half of a mountain before them had disappeared.
On the path of the line, there were no remains of monsters, their bodies having been completely obliterated.
At the origin of the indentation in the ground stood a girl holding up a sword in her right hand.
Her glistening, beautiful blond hair was darkened by the fluids of the monsters, and her clothes, made of the finest cloths, were likewise stained.
“We won… We survived.”
Everybody whispered.
However, there was no explosion of delight.
Eventually, holding her injured left arm, dragging her feet on the ground, the little girl who held the t.i.tle of “The Brave” eventually made her way back to the fort.
“That person… is she really… human?”
Somebody whispered.
The voice echoed awkwardly through the silence.
The battle had finished, and Leticia returned triumphantly through the side door.
The looks that were pointed at Leticia were the same those that the Ducal Household and the knights had given her.
‘Is she really human? Is she a demon in disguise? Monster…’
“Leticia, what a terrible-looking face. You should wash it.”
Tiara held out a clean cloth and a bucket of water.
Silently accepting it, she wiped off the dirt from her face.
The water had now become darker, but she continued to wipe her face, hands and feet.
“Thank you very much, Brave-sama. On behalf of all the villagers who survived, I thank you.”
With a quivering voice, an old man thanked her.
He must have been the village chief of one of the attacked villages.
Contrary to his words of grat.i.tude, his whole body was trembling.
Lowering his head, he hurriedly scurried back to the crowd of villagers.
“Brave-sama is a distant existence to us.”
“That person is not far from being a monster.”
Though they thought she couldn’t hear their soft voices, Leticia did hear them.
“Nee, Tiara,”
What is it?
“Tomorrow, we’ll depart. With me here, they won’t calm down.”
“Leticia…”
For her, it was a rare expression to be seen on her face, a sorrowful expression.
Lower than Tiara, Leticia looked down into the bucket of darkened water.
She continued disinterestedly speaking words.
“Either way, there are many people in the world who have been attacked by monsters. We should try to defeat the Demon Lord even quicker.”
“Leticia.”
“And also, from now on, could you call me Mavis in front of everybody? Brave Mavis… ”
“Leticia!”
Tiara enveloped Leticia in a gentle embrace.
For somebody who could kick around the monsters like it was nothing, she had a slender body.
That body was trembling.
“I— I’m not a mon- monster, right?”
“You aren’t.”
“Leticia is in no way a monster. That’s why we call you Brave Mavis.”
“I got it.”
“I want to go back… I want to see you… Onii-chan”
Embracing Tiara, Leticia cried, as the villagers looked on at a distance.
That was a battle that took place in a village near a fort.
Opposing the demon invasion, humanity had won its first victory, and the battle became the beginning of the legend of Mavis the Brave.
“Here, Onii-chan”
“Ah, thank you.”
Receiving the towel, Wynn wiped off his sweat while looking at Leticia.
Just like four years ago, before she left for her journey, Leticia stood beside Wynn.
With just that, her face softened.
It was a familiar place.
She drew water from the barrel with a bucket and washed the towel.
After wringing it out slightly, she once again delivered it to him.
“The coolness feels good. Thanks, Leti.”
“You’re welcome.”
She smiled pleasantly.
They had reunited at the school.
Wynn now went in and out of the room in his dorm.
In the courtyard in front of the dorm, she had attacked him with a surprise attack to show off her current strength.
However—
She had returned to that place, the small yard behind the Wandering Bird’s Mistletoe.
“What is it, Leti?”
She realized that tears had started flowing from her eyes.
They streamed down her cheeks, and fell off her chin.
“Did something happen? If there’s a problem, we can talk it out?“
“No, it’s nothing.”
She rubbed her eyes.
Again her eyes were swollen.
But today, it was not needed to conceal it with healing magic.
“I felt so lucky, so happy, that tears that flowed out.“
“So it was like that?”
“Yes. But first, I’m home.[5]”
Saying that, she smiled at Wynn.
“Umm, I don’t quite get it, but … Welcome home? Leti…”
Leticia gently reached out to Wynn.
In four years, she was unable to touch the one she loved at all.
That was an unbelievable burden.
“What is it, Leti?”
Curiously, Wynn’s face reddened at the fact that Leticia was unusually close.
Leticia was snuggling up to him, acting spoiled, but then—
“Oh, sorry.”
She sensed that Locke and Cornelia were standing there, motionlessly watching her.
The two had frozen with awkward expressions, as their friend scratched his head.
Translator notes
not sure why this doesn’t have a gore warning…
youma
Which side has the upper hand, though?
I’m remembering Abel’s boast right now…
Usual greeting when somebody comes home/returns, whether from school, or a journey to save the world, or more like they say it after an odyssey to signal a return to normalcy…
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