14 Transformation
Claude continued to dodge the gunfire from almost all directions as if he could see the trajectories of the bullets. His figure was as light as if he were dancing, and several bullet marks had appeared on the ground at the thief’s feet.
“…What are you, bastard?”
There was slight confusion in the Black Knight’s inorganic voice.
“A thief, just an ordinary one.”
This time Claude took the initiative. With a quick step forward, he closed the distance with the Black Knight and threw a punch aimed at his face. The Black Knight tried to dodge with a backstep and swing his sword, but Claude immediately closed the distance again, not allowing it. Instead, he spun his body and launched a spinning back kick, grazing the Black Knight’s mask.
Furthermore, Claude showed seamless combinations of hand and foot strikes, sealing off the Black Knight’s counterattacks.
However—
“Fire.”
At that single word from the Black Knight, the soldiers began shooting again. Without hesitation, even if it meant hitting the Black Knight.
Claude hurriedly took distance. Several bullets had struck the Black Knight’s armor, but like the Grim Reaper, the general in black paid no mind to it.
“Hey, you’re being shot at by your own subordinates, you know? Lacking in popularity, aren’t you?”
Claude provoked him, but,
“This armor won’t even be scratched by mere bullets. There’s no problem.”
The Black Knight paid no heed and instead stepped into range.
As if to vent the frustration from earlier, the Black Knight’s sword attacked Claude.
Claude had easily avoided the bullets, but he couldn’t completely dodge the tempest-like blade wielded by the Black Knight, and several shallow wounds were carved into his body. Cold sweat that hadn’t been there before began to flow down Claude’s forehead.
“What are you yourself, Black Knight? Besides Murakumo, there aren’t many who can wield a sword like that, you know?”
Claude had temporarily moved out of range, but the cuts all over his body stung and made him grimace.
“A knight, just an ordinary one.”
“A knight?”
Claude snorted.
“More importantly, are you even human?”
Instead of answering, the Black Knight raised one hand and signaled the soldiers to shoot Claude.
At the same time, he himself swung his sword toward Claude.
“You’re merciless, damn you!”
Claude cursed and lowered his stance to avoid the bullets while sliding to dodge the Black Knight’s strike, then kicked the sword’s hilt from directly below. The large black sword drew a parabolic arc and stuck into the ground at a slightly distant spot in the courtyard.
Claude tried to turn to the offensive at this opportunity, but was exposed to particularly intense gunfire to support the Black Knight and had to take distance again.
However, the rifles held by the Imperial Army soldiers didn’t have that many bullets either. If they continued shooting like this, they would run out of ammunition soon. The soldiers, who were being toyed with by just one thief, were beginning to show signs of panic.
Sensing this, the Black Knight raised his right hand and held up two fingers, issuing a new command.
“Aim for the princess.”
For a moment, the soldiers were confused, but they quickly understood the order and pointed their gun barrels at Emma.
Emma, who had retreated to the fortress wall so as not to interfere with Claude’s battle, suddenly stiffened as guns were pointed at her. A cat popped out of her apron and bristled all its fur to show its anger.
“Black Knight, you bastard!”
Simultaneously with Claude’s shout, the soldiers pulled their triggers.
Claude leaped as if diving toward Emma. He tried to block the bullets with his own body.
“Claude-san!!”
Emma’s scream echoed throughout the fortress.
After a moment’s pause, blood splattered from Claude’s back.
The Black Knight raised one hand again and made the soldiers stop shooting.
“Well done. I believed in you, thief. I was sure you would save the princess.”
Claude, having taken several bullets in his back, collapsed at Emma’s feet, staining the ground with blood.
“Now then, shall we go, Princess? Your knight is no longer here.”
The Black Knight approached Emma as if the match was decided. However,
Grrrrrr
Suddenly a low growling sound echoed. Emma cast her gaze down at her feet, thinking it might be from the cat, but the small animal in question was backing away as if wary of the fallen Claude.
Looking closely, thick hair was growing from the skin of Claude’s hands and feet. Dense dark brown hair. She didn’t remember this thief being so hairy. More than anything, his head had undergone a remarkable transformation. To put it simply, it had become that of a beast.
The Black Knight had also noticed this change.
“Could it be… a werewolf?”
Werewolf. As the name suggests, a wolf that disguises itself as a human. A demon that mingles with humans and is said to devour them.
Its power surpasses even knights, and it has long been an object of fear in human history.
However, in recent years, intense werewolf hunts had been conducted under the leadership of the church.
The werewolf hunts caused several tragedies of mistakenly executing ordinary humans, but they still thoroughly cornered the werewolves and succeeded in making them extinct. This was just about ten years ago.
The thing that had been Claude suddenly leaped. Turning around, it slashed the Black Knight’s cloak with its sharply extended claws and left claw marks on his armor.
“Tch.”
The Black Knight tried to distance himself, but the beast was overwhelmingly faster than when it had been human, and the distance was immediately closed.
With claws, with fangs, it continuously damaged the Black Knight’s armor. The Black Knight and werewolf overlapped, making it impossible for the soldiers to aim with their guns.
The shrill, unpleasant sound of metal being scratched rang out incessantly.
Seeing Claude in this state, Emma remembered something from long ago. A hazy memory from her childhood.
(Could it be, from that time… that’s why he saved me…)
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The fierce attack of the werewolf, literally a wounded beast, continued. But it didn’t reach the point of penetrating the Black Knight’s armor.
Due to his injuries as well, the beast’s movements gradually began to slow. This was clear even to Emma’s eyes.
“Claude-san!”
The moment Emma thought “dangerous,” the Black Knight’s sword had pierced through the werewolf’s abdomen.
The werewolf—Claude—didn’t fall immediately but staggered backward before collapsing.
The soldiers tried to aim their guns, but Emma covered him protectively.
Claude’s body was covered in blood, but Emma didn’t care as she stained her hands and clothes with blood, clinging to him and shedding endless tears.
“I’m sorry, because of me…”
The Black Knight raised his hand to instruct the soldiers to stop their attack, waited a moment, then approached Emma.
“Crying is fine, but there are still two more fighting below for your sake. If you don’t cooperate with us, those two will die as well, you know?”
Emma looked toward the Black Knight, startled by those words. The girl’s face was stained with blood.
“If I obey you, will Murakumo-san and Yuri-san be spared?”
“Of course.”
An Imperial officer approached from behind the Black Knight, who had easily agreed, and whispered to him.
“Is this acceptable? Those two have dealt considerable damage to our forces.”
“It doesn’t matter. If we incur any more losses, the questioning from His Excellency the Prime Minister will become severe later.”
The Black Knight replied in a voice only the officer could hear.
This time, the Black Knight had attacked Claude’s fortress using the drastic measure of burning down the entire mountain area, but the Empire had not approved this. It was the Black Knight’s arbitrary decision.
Moreover, it was solely for the purpose of retrieving the former princess of a small country.
Just before this, the Black Knight had achieved merit by conquering Highland, but even so, his arrogant behavior wouldn’t be tolerated.
He had defeated the formidable thief—who had even been a werewolf—but if he were to go after Murakumo and Yuri next, further damage would be unavoidable. The Black Knight thought it would be better strategy to use them as bargaining material to make Emma compliant.
“…I understand. I will obey you.”
Emma answered while keeping her gaze lowered to Claude’s face. The girl’s tears ran down Claude’s cheek.
“Very good. Withdraw.”
The officer behind him repeated the Black Knight’s words in a loud voice.
That command spread through the soldiers’ repetition, and hurried withdrawal preparations began.
The cat rubbed against Emma as if to comfort her.
“What? What happened?”
Murakumo, who had been fighting the Grim Reapers while becoming battered, tilted his head in confusion.
Suddenly, the Grim Reapers had begun to retreat.
“It’s a loss, a loss. Claude was defeated and Emma was captured.”
Yuri, who had been monitoring the situation with magic, twisted his beautiful face.
“You’re lying!? Claude was defeated!?”
“His true identity was even exposed. Complete defeat.”
Both Murakumo and Yuri knew that Claude was a werewolf.
“Anyway, let’s return to the fortress. The Imperial Army has already withdrawn.”
Yuri looked at the fortress with a stern expression.
The Imperial Army withdrew while watching Yuri and Murakumo from a distance.
As if they wanted nothing more to do with such monsters.
The entire area had been turned into a burnt wasteland, and the thieves’ lair was half-destroyed.
The scene was like hell on earth.
“Claude took bullets in his back, you know? How did the Imperial bastards manage to bring down such a nimble guy?”
Murakumo frowned upon discovering Claude, who had been left in his werewolf form.
“The Black Knight had the soldiers aim at Emma. Claude protected her and ended up like this. After that, he turned into a wolf and resisted, but the Black Knight’s armor was impenetrable. If I had known he was coming, I would have prepared countermeasures…”
Yuri’s matter-of-fact words were tinged with frustration. He had been monitoring Claude and the Black Knight’s battle with magic, but couldn’t intervene.
“That scoundrel!”
Murakumo spat the words out.
“So what do we do? Bury him?”
Yuri looked at the fallen Claude.
“Bury him? You…”
Murakumo was at a loss for words at Yuri’s quick change of topic. However, realistically, there wasn’t much else they could do.
“You mustn’t bury him, you know?”
There was a woman who called out to them.
“Werewolves don’t die from something this trivial. Perhaps I should say they can’t die?”
“Laksh…”
The one who approached Murakumo and the others was a blue-haired female merchant.
“I brought the change from those gems the other day, but it looks like healing medicine would sell for a high price right now, don’t you think?”
Laksh showed a smile filled with business spirit.
TLNOTE
While waiting for the next chapter, I encourage you, dear readers, to explore other masterpieces written by Daken-sensei :
- Monster Meat Led Me to the Throne
- Who killed the Hero?
- The Wicked Princess and 12 Eyes – The Strongest Squires and the Legendary Evil Woman, the Second Time in Her Life
- The Suspects of Necromancy
- The Exiled Merchant Saves the World with the Power of Gold (translated by my friend meerkat)
- The Last Magic (translated by my friend narwhal)
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
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