The Corrupt Guildmaster, the Original Heroine Falls in Love
After returning from the Forest of Death, I spent the remaining days before the mock battle running the guild while coaching Fiel in her original combat style.
Aron occasionally helped fine-tune Fiel’s training, and her skills improved at a rapid pace.
She was originally specialized in anti-personnel combat. Adding life-or-death battles against monsters, the release of her skill, and finally, continuous bouts against Aron—the cheat-tier protagonist—there’s no way someone like her would lose to an average knight.
Then came the day of the exchange matches between the Fress Kingdom and the Sirium Empire. The bouts progressed from the lower-ranked knights upward, and before we knew it, the fight before the Knight Commander’s match had begun.
The earlier matches had been awful. “Rout” might be the perfect word. The knights of the Fress Kingdom were completely treated like children by those of the Sirium Empire.
“The Sirium Empire’s guys… they’re too strong…!”
“We can’t win against that…”
“You guys…”
Fiel clenched her hand tightly. All of her subordinates had been defeated. While Emidia, Aron, and I watched, the final match began—Fress Kingdom’s Knight Commander Fiel versus the Sirium Empire’s Knight Commander Gargale.”
“Knight Commander Fiel. This is apparently your last exchange match, huh? Retiring from the knights order because of your engagement… sure must be nice to be a woman.”
Gargale leaned down to peer into Fiel’s face, provoking her. Nearly two meters tall, his massive body radiated overwhelming pressure.
Fiel looked at me. Her expression seemed to ask for words… Well, I brought her into the guild. Guess I’ll give her a push.
“Fiel, you can win. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Fiel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then—
“… Gargale-dono. Let’s begin our final battle. I will stake my entire life as a knight to defeat you.”
She declared it with a fearless smile. Not a trace of doubt on her face. She looked completely prepared in both body and spirit.
“Hah! I’ll beat you to a pulp like last time!!”
Gargale drew his longsword and stepped forward, bringing down a powerful strike. Fiel didn’t block with her sword; she leaned her body aside and dodged, then instantly countered with a horizontal slash. The blade caught Gargale’s torso, but the blunted training sword couldn’t penetrate his armor and caused no damage.
“Oh? Didn’t hurt at all.”
From the previous matches, it seems you can only deal damage by striking armor joints or landing an extremely powerful blow. That puts Gargale at an advantage.
“Commander!? That didn’t work!”
“He’s way too big…”
“There’s no way we can beat the Sirium Empire…”
“Zilkein-sama…?”
Emidia tugged on my sleeve.
“It’s fine. Look at Fiel’s face. That’s not the face of someone who’ll lose.”
“Yeah, she’s just gauging Gargale’s strength. She’s probably checking how much she’s grown since their previous fight.”
Just as Aron said. She’s waiting for the right timing to activate her unique skill.
“You’re right… Fiel-san trained so hard. She’ll win, won’t she?”
Emidia clasped her hands as if in prayer. Ahead of her, Fiel was blocking Gargale’s heavy strikes.
“Hahahahaha!!! What’s wrong!? You’re not counterattacking at all! I’ll overwhelm you just like this!!”
The longsword crashed down with shrill clanging sounds. Stopping the downward blow made Fiel let out a strained groan.
“Guh…!”
“Whoa!?”
“Commander!! Let’s stop this already!”
“At this rate—”
“If you get hurt before the engagement, that’ll be awful! You should surrender—”
Hearing the Fress knights, I remembered Fiel’s words when she first asked me for guidance.
──I want to show everyone who’s sending me off… that a knight of our kingdom can defeat a knight of the Sirium Empire.
Hearing her own knights telling her to give up while she was still fighting irritated me. Do they not understand what resolve she brought into this battle? Having stupid subordinates must be rough.
While Fiel fought, instead of cheers, all she heard was “give up.” That must have reminded her of her father and fiancé, who overshadowed her life as a knight.
My irritation grew. No one acknowledged her talent or effort.
Fools. Do you not realize it’s your incompetence that keeps Fiel from showing her real ability? Her subordinates, her father, her fiancé—all of them stole her future by burying her under dismissive words.
Unforgivable. As Emidia said, my duty as Guildmaster cannot overlook this.
I let capable people work and eat off the earnings. That’s why I cannot tolerate seeing someone talented being undervalued.
“You lot!! Look at Fiel!! Do you know why she came to me!? To show you all what comes next—her comeback victory!!”
At my shout, the knights flinched.
“Comeback?”
“Commander’s been training at the Guildmaster’s place…”
“To show us…?”
“Could it be the commander… wanted us to cheer for her…?”
“Yeah. She always looked after us…”
“We’re the ones who have to lead the order after she’s gone.”
“If the commander’s fighting, how can we give up first!?”
“Do your best… Commander!!”
“Show us your victory!!”
“Commander!!”
The timid voices gradually turned into cheers.
“Hey, Knight Commander Fiel? How long are you gonna keep defending? Come at me!”
“… Sorry, but defense happens to be my specialty.”
“Defense, your specialty? Gahaha!! That’s not a specialty! That’s a weakling’s excuse!!”
“… I have understood your strength, Gargale-dono.”
“The hell did you say!!?”
Enraged, Gargale unleashed a full-force downward slash. Fiel raised her sword in a straight-on guard and called out her skill.
“Eisen Maiden!”
The longsword touched her shoulder. In that instant, Fiel’s body glowed faintly, and Gargale’s blade was violently repelled.
“What!?”
Off-balance, Gargale staggered backward. Fiel, who until now had focused solely on defense, took a deep step forward with her sword raised.
“Let me see… whether you possess any talent for defense!!!”
Fiel spun sideways. Losing balance, Gargale exposed an armor joint, and her blade struck precisely.
“Haa!!!”
A slash carrying her entire weight hit Gargale squarely.
“Guooh!!?”
Gargale grimaced in pain, barely staying on his feet and counterattacking.
“Don’t mess with me!!”
“Pointless!!”
His slash was again bounced off by Eisen Maiden, leaving an enormous opening.
“Again!? Why!?”
Eisen Maiden reflects physical attacks. Unless he produces a strike strong enough to pierce that barrier, his attacks will rebound completely. She was testing whether Gargale could break through. And now that she’s attacking—
“She’s won.”
“Once more!!!”
Fiel’s sword struck another armor joint dead-on.
“Gahaa!!?”
His attacks no longer reached her. And in anti-personnel combat, she was a professional. With no need to hold back on defense anymore, nothing could stop her. Each blow twisted Gargale’s expression, until fear finally overtook him.
“W-wa… wait…”
“This… ends now!!!!”
Unable to move, Gargale received Fiel’s leaping strike. A full-power blow landed on his neck guard, smashing the giant man down into the earth.
“Guaaaaaaaaaah!!!?”
With that scream, Gargale hit the ground and lost consciousness.
Silence filled the surroundings.
Then—
“Uooooooooh!!!”
“The commander won!!”
“No way!? She beat that Gargale!?”
“Commander… she’s incredible…!!”
“Snff… I’m sorry, Commander… I…”
“We were wrong…”
“But to think the commander could overwhelm Gargale…”
“The Guildmaster’s training is insane!?”
“Train me too!!”
The area erupted into cheers. Fiel, the tension leaving her body, collapsed to the ground.
“You did it, Zilkein-sama!!”
Emidia suddenly hugged me, tears streaming down her face. I—I can’t move…
“Aron, Fiel.”
“Yeah!!”
Aron rushed over to her and offered a hand.
“You alright?”
“Hah… As expected, that was exhausting. I may have been too tense…”
Fiel took his hand and stood. A meeting between the protagonist and the heroine. As someone who’d read the original story, it was touching to witness.
Oh? Fiel’s whispering something to Aron. Did their relationship progress?
(Aron-dono, may I ask you something?)
(Hm? What is it?)
(That woman Emidia… she and Zilkein-dono… are they lovers?)
(Hmm… more like boss and subordinate.)
(I—I see. Good…)
(Why? Do you like the Guildmaster?)
(!? N-no! I’m not some frivolous woman…! I just think he has a dignified face and I’m glad he takes me seriously, that’s all!!)
(You’re talking super fast…)
(S-shut up!!)
(Well, we did train together. I’ll help you out.)
(Truly…!? Thank you!!)
Fiel beamed, Aron smiled softly. Their meeting might be fate. I erased their original encounter route by altering the story, and yet they still met.
Warm feelings stirred in my chest—the same ones I had reading the original.
…
Three months later.
Moved by Fiel’s battle, the Fress knights trained hard. They apparently surpassed the skill level they had even during Fiel’s command.
Fiel retired from the Knights Order, shattered her engagement just like in the original, got kicked out of her home, and became an adventurer. With Aron’s and my recommendation, she started as a D-rank adventurer. She’ll climb quickly, no doubt.
When Emidia asked Fiel why she didn’t go through with her engagement, she said she turned it down because “there’s someone I like.”
A different reason from the original… likely a result of my interference.
“From now on, I’ll be a solo adventurer. My specialty is escort missions! I look forward to working with you… Guildmaster-dono.”
Fiel smiled brightly. She must truly be happy to have become an adventurer. If so, then all my effort was worth it.
And that’s how our Luminage Guild welcomed its new D-rank adventurer—the former Knight Commander, Fiel Valencia.
What do you think about this chapter?
