HTSAADK 04

How to Live as a Catastrophe-Level Knight Episode 004

4. The Giant Raven

Hokarn was a mercenary from a small town. Since childhood, among his friends, he was said to be quite good with a sword and took on the role of leader. He certainly had talent.

A retired mercenary who drank daily at the village fountain, hobbling on one leg, would grab Hokarn and tell him:

“Hokarn, you are the one with the makings of a knight! I’ll make you a knight!”

That old man who lost a leg and retired from the mercenary world was the seed of misfortune. Despite his family’s dissuasion, on the day he came of age, Hokarn ran away from his hometown with his friends and started mercenary work.

Hokarn, Walter, Maroon.
The three always stuck together and began making a name for themselves as trusted low-rank mercenaries in the industry. They took any job that came their way without discrimination. To become stronger, they needed superior swordsmanship. Not the third-rate swordsmanship of the retired mercenary, but real, proper swordsmanship and martial arts. For that, they needed money.

He just wanted to become a knight.
That was all.
He thought it was a humble dream.

That was, until he briefly visited his hometown after saving a considerable sum as a low-rank mercenary and learned that the old retired mercenary had murdered his parents and fled. Leaving behind his friends who tried to console him, Hokarn swore before his parents’ graves.

He swore to avenge his parents.

Absurdly, that oath fulfilled itself not long after.
About a week into tracking the retired mercenary using the tracking skills he learned as a mercenary, Hokarn, along with his friends, found the retired mercenary’s corpse collapsed on the highway, his neck severed. A horrific wound as if saw off, torn limbs, and clear teeth marks presumably from beasts.

The retired mercenary, after killing his parents and fleeing with the family’s money, had been killed by orcs on the highway. The mercenary swordsmanship he had posed as teaching all this time did not protect his body.

Hokarn then wandered battlefields after that. He told Walter and Maroon that it was over now and to return home, but his friends didn’t listen. They just laughed it off, saying friends should stick together.

Then, one day. Hokarn and his friends, who had steadily built trust as low-rank mercenaries, were lucky enough to receive a large request. The client was quite a big shot. The prestigious swordsmanship family, the Del Marzio Count’s household. They were to take on work for the Del Marzio family, one of the founding contributors of the Saxony Kingdom.

Del Marzio was gathering mercenaries ahead of a massive basilisk subjugation. Over 300 mercenaries gathered, from mid-to-high rank mercenaries handling front-line combat to low-rank mercenaries handling supplies. Combined with the Del Marzio Count’s knights and soldiers, it was a massive force exceeding a thousand.

And on a certain day when the Count’s forces and the monster basilisk clashed, Hokarn realized how meager his talent was. The moment he witnessed the basilisk’s majestic, enormous size, capable of shattering thick kite shields with a single swing of its tail. The moment he saw the knights in full plate armor closing the distance and swinging steel swords in the blink of an eye, Hokarn understood why monsters were humanity’s eternal fear and why knights were transcendent beings surpassing humans.

A knight was not simply a person skilled in swordsmanship.

A knight was an entity capable of using magic

Beings who, deviating from providence, were permitted by nature to use magic, imbued their will into that power, and forged it into phenomena. Sensory activation, body enhancement, Iron Skin, etc. Those techniques made knights beings beyond humans. Knights had originally been such beings since ancient times. Heroes wielding steel swords to oppose powerful monsters that humans could not handle.

That day, as the basilisk subjugation operation ended, Hokarn gave up his dream of becoming a knight. It was a dream he could not reach. He thought so. Their existence was so overwhelming and dazzling that seeing knightly combat one more time was his last lingering attachment.

Hokarn shook off the suddenly surfacing old memory and cast his gaze.

“Just what are you trying to do now…?!”
“What else? Hunting game.”

The mercenary sitting on a rock, nonchalantly tearing into jerky, threw the stone he was holding into the sky without a moment’s hesitation.
It was madness. He thought it was strange from the start; perhaps this person was truly insane. Throw a stone to catch a giant raven? It’s a monster with thick feathers hard to damage even if thrown point-blank. Let alone at this distance, even shooting an arrow wouldn’t guarantee an effective hit.

But.
RUMBLE—
The moment the giant man picked up and threw the stone, the atmosphere trembled and roared. Instantly, the air around the man roared like a dragon, and a shock wave erupted. Walter, standing beside him, cursed at the unbelievable sight.

“…Mad. He’s definitely mad. Is this possible?”

Walter’s eyes were shaking with fear. A stone-throw of monstrous strength so unbelievable it made one doubt if he was even the same species. The pebble that pierced the sky pierced straight through the giant raven’s wing.

Kwaaang—
An unbelievable roar echoed, as if the stone and the raven’s cloth-like wing had collided. The sight of the giant raven’s wing, large enough to cover an adult man, exploding like fireworks was visible. The giant raven, perhaps knocked unconscious by that single attack, began to plummet.

If left like this, despite catching the giant raven, Enselm would die from the fall. Hokarn, about to run, realized the distance was too far to reach even by galloping and grimaced.
He’ll die.
Enselm cannot survive.
Falling from that hundreds of meters height, he would likely be torn to shreds, scattered so badly that finding traces of the corpse would be difficult.

Hokarn thought so.
Until the moment the man who finished the transcendent, fearsome stone-throw kicked off the ground.

Kwaaang—
This time, the earth shook. Instantly, the ground where the giant man stepped caved in, and storm-like dust swept rapidly in all directions. Through the dust, Hokarn could see the giant man launching himself.

He was fast.
So fast it was hard to keep up just by turning his head.
The moment the man kicked off the ground, he dashed out faster than a horse and was already at the giant raven’s landing point.

And then.
THUD—
He snatched the falling Enselm and the giant raven with each hand and used the recoil of his arms to offset the impact of the fall.

“…Ha.”

Looking at Enselm, trembling in fear, held in the giant man’s hand, Hokarn sank into deep contemplation. Whether to flee from here or stay and fulfill his mercenary duty. Hokarn felt an indescribable chill under the gaze of the man who saved Enselm and looked back at him.

A sudden doubt arose.
Could that man really be called human?
At first, he thought he was a knight.
Until he shot down the giant raven’s wing with a stone throw, he thought he was just an exceptionally outstanding being among knights.

But the moment he saw the man erupting in a dust storm and rushing out, Hokarn realized that man was an unknown something that even surpassed knights.

‘I’ve never seen such a thing before. That kind of knight…’

Hokarn was someone who had witnessed knightly combat firsthand, not through rumors. Even the knights of the Delmarzio’s Count’s household, who valued honor more than life, during the basilisk subjugation, were not at this level. Compared to that man, they were still human.

A human made of cloth.

“Ha, damn. No choice, huh. If this is fate, I guess I should accept it.”

In the end, Hokarn couldn’t ignore the desperate look Enselm, captured by the man, was giving him. If they fled too, who would save that poor merchant? Of course, Walter and Maroon, who witnessed the scene together, disagreed with Hokarn.

“Le, let’s run. Hokarn. This doesn’t look right no matter what.”
“I agree. Even if we get permanently expelled from the guild by running, it’s better than being permanently expelled from life.”

The two expressed their opinions in hushed whispers as if the giant man might hear, even though he was far away. Of course, Hokarn’s answer was decided.

“…We’ll get caught if we run anyway. Even if we flee on the horses tied to the carriage, we can’t match that man’s instantaneous speed.”

Fleeing here is not a rational decision. Rather, it might be the worst move, provoking that giant man. In that case, facing him head-on was right. Show respect, value the other party, and lower one’s posture. Just as he had done with nobles until now.

Having finished the hunt, I released Enselm, whom I was holding in one hand. Enselm was sprawled on the ground, looking at me as if I were a monster, but that gaze wasn’t bad.

‘Better than being looked down on. Misunderstandings can be cleared up gradually.’

For reference, as someone from an illegal slash-and-burn village, I had no proper identity. I had the name Cedric given by my parents, but without identity documents to vouch for that name, it wouldn’t be strange to be misunderstood as a spy from another country. Considering the current Saxony Kingdom, as a duchy of the Sidmar Empire, could go to war with other kingdoms at any time, obtaining an identity was the foremost task.

I planned to use Enselm as my identity guarantor. With the guarantee of a capable merchant, there would be no need to argue with the territory’s scribe.

“Since I saved your life, I’d like to ask a few favors. Possible, Enselm?”
““S-speak, speak! Sir Knight…!”
“I’m Cedric. I’ll say it, but I’m not a knight. You can think of me as a mercenary aspirant.”
“A mercenary aspirant, you say?”

Enselm showed an uneasy look in his eyes, wondering what that meant, but it wasn’t something I needed to mind, so I continued.

“I need an identity guarantee. Since I came from an illegal slash-and-burn village, I don’t have a plausible identity. I think I’ll need your help.”
“If, if it’s that, it’s entirely possible! Just leave it to me! Ah, no! Please, I beg you! Allow me to be Sir Cedric’s identity guarantor!”

Enselm rather proactively bowed his head, eager to take on the task. So much so that I thought his neck might break. I nodded lightly and examined the giant raven in my left hand. One wing was completely gone, but it wasn’t completely dead yet. Well, losing its wings was no different from being dead anyway. The fate of a wingless bird was nothing but becoming food for land beasts.

“Can you eat this?”
“It, it’s poisonous. With a knight’s physique, absorption might be possible, but the meat quality isn’t good, so I wouldn’t recommend it. However…”
“However?”
“The giant raven’s feathers trade for a very high price. If you wish, Sir Knight… I will purchase them from you at a good price.”

That day, I sold the giant raven to Enselm and earned a lump sum of 5 gold. For reference, it was originally 3 gold. While sitting by the campfire having a meal, when I asked if that was the fair price, Enselm paid an additional 2 gold without being asked, trembling all over as if he were cold.

I later found out that, from Enselm’s perspective, he had bought it at the distribution price without keeping any margin for himself. Enselm, contrary to appearances, had a naively kind side.

I don’t know why Walter did that.
Such a kind person.