Nido Tensei Shita Shounen wa S-rank Boukensha Toshite Heion ni Sugosu ~ Zense ga Kenja de Eiyūdatta Boku wa Raisede wa Jimi ni Ikiru ~

Episode 59: Sky Knights and Dancing Wings in the Sky

“Humans descended from the sky without wings!?”

We arrived at the village of the Sky people, but for some reason, we surprised the Sky people themselves.

“Um, isn’t it normal to fly in the sky? You also fly in the sky and descend to the ground.”

“Well, that’s true, but you were flying without wings.”

A nearby Sky person pointed at his own back while looking intimidated.

“Yes, with flying magic, you can fly in the sky.”

“F-Flying magic!? Are you talking about the lost ancient magic!?”

The mention of flying magic caused a commotion.
Wait, lost ancient magic?

It’s strange.
The Sky people should have wings on their backs, but these people don’t have wings and are surprised by the mention of lost magic.
If they can fly on their own, there’s no need to be surprised by flying magic.

“Could it be that you can’t fly?”

Maybe, but are these people and the Sky people different races?

“Well, of course we can’t fly.
We are different from the knights.”

So, it seems that the Sky people refer to the knights with wings.
But then, who are these people?

“Um, who are you guys? Are you different from the Sky people?”

“Who are we? We are the Sky people.
But what about you guys? We have never seen humans like you on this Sky Island!”

Wait? Are these people also Sky people? But they don’t have wings.
What’s going on?

“I’ve never seen a human who can use flying magic.
Are you guys humans from another Sky Island?”

It seems like they think we are Sky people from another Sky Island.
Now, how should we answer?

“No, we are adventurers who came from the ground.
We came here searching for the Sky Continent.”

Since there’s no need to keep it a secret, I decided to tell the villagers our original purpose.

“The Sky… Continent?”

Hmm, their reaction is dull.
Maybe it was a waste to ask about the Sky Continent.
It seems unlikely that we’ll get any information about it.
Maybe I should ask about the other question, why these people don’t have wings, why this village is so humble even though it’s a Sky people’s village, and what exactly are the Sky people.

“By the way, about this village…”

Just as I was about to ask about the village, the villagers looked up at the sky and exclaimed.

“The knights have arrived!”

We also looked up and saw the knights with wings that we saw in the town on the ground the other day descending from the sky.

“Knights, those are the ones.”

An old man who seemed to be a villager pointed at us and spoke to the knights.
Did they report us?

“You two! Are you trespassers who illegally entered our Sky people’s country? What is your purpose for coming here?”

The commander of the knights interrogated us.
It seems like we are being treated as illegal immigrants.
Let’s answer honestly.

“Hello, Sky people.
My name is Rex, and this is my travel companion, Liliera.
We came here searching for the Sky Continent.
It should be around this area.
Do you know anything about it?”

But the commander of the knights tilted his head in confusion at our words.

“The Sky Continent? That was destroyed and shattered a long time ago!”

“What!?”

That’s ridiculous! There’s no way that huge Sky Continent could be easily destroyed.
And how can it be shattered? What did they do to make such a large continent shatter?

“The legend says that the floating Sky Islands in this sky are remnants of the former Sky Continent.
Anyone who lives in this sky knows that! Your excuses won’t work!”

“What!? The floating islands are remnants of the Sky Continent? What does that mean?”

What does that mean? But instead of answering, the knights raised their spears and surrounded us.
The tips of their spears were glowing, probably magic items that unleash light attribute attack magic.

“If you don’t tell the truth, you will be turned into ashes by the judgment light unleashed from the holy spear.
Are you spies who came from another floating island?”

Huh? Why would they think that?

“No, we came from the ground.”

“I told you not to lie.
Inferior humans without wings cannot ascend to the sky.
Only the people of the floating islands with the same power as us can come here!”

Hmm, it seems that these people don’t believe us because they don’t know that we can use flying magic.
Let’s prove it by actually flying.

“We really came from the ground.
We have proof.”

“Proof?”

“Yes, like this.
We flew here using flying magic.”

I activate my flying magic and float in the air.

“Nonsense! You flew without using wings!?”

“See? I’m flying, right?”

“You’re using a different power than ours to fly! What are you using?”

Huh? Why won’t they believe in flying magic? Or rather, are they flying with their own wings?

“I’m telling you, it’s flying magic.”

“Those who can use flying magic have long been extinct! That’s right, it must be so!”

It must be so? In other words, it’s inconvenient for them if there are humans who can use flying magic? I don’t really understand, but it seems like there are complicated circumstances.

“Capture these people! If they resist, kill them!”

Wow, they’re really motivated.

“What should we do? Fight back or surrender?”

Liliera asks me whether we should fight or surrender.

“Hmm, if we surrender quietly, I don’t think they will believe our story.
Let’s shake off the sparks that fall on us.”

They will probably chase us even if we try to escape.

“Yes, they clearly don’t understand us.”

We prepare our weapons back to back and charge towards the knights in front of us.

“Resist! Kill them if necessary!”

“Bow your heads!”

“Yes!”

In response to my words, Liliera immediately bows her head.
Because of this sudden action, the knights surrounding us accidentally hit each other with their attacks.
Their attacks hit their own allies, causing significant damage to their luxurious armor.

“Captain, we’re hitting our allies!”

“You fools! Attack the enemy!”

Well, if we surround them from all directions, this is bound to happen.
But I was surprised that they actually hit their own allies.

I had a feeling that would happen, so these knights have too little combat experience.
Liliera understood my intention immediately when she saw the knights surrounding us, and she helped create a situation where the knights would attack each other.

“Ha!”

I dive into the knights’ midst with the enhanced speed from my body strengthening magic, destroying their armor and weapons, and delivering blows that incapacitate them without killing them.

“Attack!”

Liliera, unlike me, mercilessly attacks the knights.
She parries their spears with her own spear and repeatedly strikes with shallow attacks, aiming for the gaps in their armor.

“Argh!”

“You fools! Our weapons are useless!?”

The knights seem surprised, but this is not a problem with the weapons’ performance but rather their lack of combat experience.
Honestly, their training is insufficient.

In this way, we defeat the knights one by one.

“T-This can’t be… The chosen knights of our kingdom…”

“If only the light spear could hit…”

One of the knights repeatedly shoots beams of light at us.

“Light spear?”

Even if they say it will hit, it doesn’t seem to have much power.
I use my magic to intercept the light spear the knight shot at me.

“Photon Lancer!”

The light spear shot by the knight is easily destroyed by my magic, and not only that, it completely neutralizes it and even destroys the spear the knight was holding.

“It was more fragile than I expected.”

“You fools! The light spear was destroyed!?”

“Impossible! This is an equipment bestowed by the king!”

“Hmm, that magic item doesn’t seem very strong.
It’s just average at best.”

“What!?”

“Are you saying that the power of the weapons bestowed upon us by the king is just average!?”

The knights look at their own weapons with shocked faces.

“Kyuu!”

Mofumofu suddenly jumps onto one of the knights I defeated earlier and bites its wings.
Hey, hey, you can’t eat them.

“Peh!”

However, for some reason, Mofumofu stops biting the knight’s wings and spits out saliva.

“Huh?”

Did the wings of the Sky people taste bad to Mofumofu?

Anyway, we easily defeated the knights.
It was a bit anticlimactic, to be honest.

“T-This is ridiculous…”

“So these are the Sky people? They’re quite disappointing.”

Liliera is also perplexed by how weak the Sky people’s knights were.

“T-The knight has been defeated!”

And the villagers who had been watching the battle panicked and fled when they saw the knight being defeated.

“Oh dear, everyone has run away.”

Well, we don’t really have any grudges against the villagers, so there’s no need to chase after them.

“Liliera, are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m done here.”

“As expected, well done.”

I praised Liliera’s fighting skills, but she had a somewhat complicated expression on her face.

“I appreciate the praise, but after watching your fighting, I can’t be completely happy.”

Oh my, she still has such a stoic way of thinking.
It would be nice if she could relax and be more joyful.

“Well then, shall we go and talk to them?”

It was just a misunderstanding, so I hadn’t killed the knights.
It seemed that Liliera had also been careful not to take any lives.

“Um, about the commander from earlier, Yes…”

I was looking for the knight who had unilaterally labeled us as spies earlier.

“Huh? He’s not here?”

That’s right, the commander who had been giving orders earlier was nowhere to be found.
Did he escape?

“No…!”

I quickly moved my body sideways to dodge.
And right after that, a beam of light passed through the spot where I had been.

“So it was an ambush after all!”

I instinctively infused magic power into my sword and unleashed a slash.
The slash created by the magic power hit the hidden knight and sent him flying.

“Hah, a direct hit.”

The flying slash created by magic power can adjust its power through the user’s control.
It’s a convenient attack that won’t accidentally cause serious injuries even if I reflexively counterattack… or so I thought.

“Gwaaaah!?”

Despite that, for some reason, the flying slash easily destroyed the knight’s armor and even cut his wings in half.

“Uwaaah!? I’m sorry!!”

Damn, I went too far.
I need to use recovery magic quickly! There’s no way my recovery magic can restore a severed body.

“Wait, what?”

“What’s wrong, Rex?”

In a panic, I hurried to heal the fallen enemy commander’s wings, but there was no red blood flowing from the wings.
Furthermore, the inside of the wings was neither flesh nor bone.

“These wings, they’re magic items.”

“What!?”

Yes, the inside of the wings was filled with metal and magical catalysts, and the wing-like parts that resembled living creatures were fake.

“What on earth is going on?”

It seems that the Sky people are not the mystical beings we had imagined.