We were attacked by monsters at the edge of the forest that marked the boundary with the neighboring domain.

“Damn it! They’re mid-grade monsters!”

“Argh! It’s headed your way!”

“Fall back! Let the knights handle them!”

“Don’t charge in when you can’t even use mana!”

As the soldiers caught the monsters’ attacks on their shields, the knights rushed forward, shouting.

BANG! BANG!

Then came the sounds of things breaking and bursting.

Simon and I hurried out of the carriage too. Our eyes widened at the sight before us.

“It’s the first time either of you has seen anything like that, isn’t it?” the head butler asked as he climbed out after us.

“Those are monsters?” Simon frowned at the creatures fighting the knights.

I couldn’t help grimacing myself.

‘Wild dogs? No, wolves?’

They were the size of small cars, so it was hard to call them wild dogs—or even wolves—but they looked a lot like wolves. If they’d been in one piece, I might have taken them for enormous wolves.

But the two creatures fighting the knights now deserved to be called monsters. Half their skin had peeled away. Dark red blood clung like muddy tar to the exposed muscle beneath, and in places such as their heads and chests, even the muscle had been torn away, baring bone.

They looked remarkably like the zombie dogs I’d seen in games. Just several times bigger.

‘How are they alive...? No, how are they moving?’

Some parts moved with nothing but bone holding them together. They looked as though crawling should be a struggle, yet they were thrashing furiously against the knights.

“Undead wolves! Formation for beast-type undead!” Sir Hugo shouted to the other knights, who swiftly shifted positions while keeping the monsters engaged.

Soon the creatures he’d called undead wolves were trapped inside a circular formation.

So these were undead monsters? The book that explained monsters hadn’t been illustrated, so I’d never imagined they would look like this. I’d pictured frightening mutants with a bit of pus on them.

Giant zombie dogs? These were fantasy monsters through and through. At this rate, skeletons might really be monsters made of nothing but bones!

While I imagined an army of sword-wielding skeletons spewing black smoke from their mouths, my brother Simon stepped forward. He already had his sword in hand.

“Will you join the fight?” the knight commander asked from behind us. Simon nodded.

“It’s a chance to fight a monster. I can’t pass it up.”

After a moment’s thought, the knight commander nodded. “Very well. Please be careful.”

He called toward the fighting. “Young Master Simon will take the one on the left! Adjust the formation!”

“Understood,” Sir Hugo answered for the others.

At his orders, the formation began to change. The monsters kept thrashing, but the distance between them gradually widened until each was enclosed separately. Five knights surrounded each monster, and Simon entered the circle on the left.

“Will he be all right?” I asked the knight commander beside me.

The knights were fighting well within their formations, but they couldn’t inflict serious damage. Their swords sliced through the monsters’ skin and cut into their muscles, yet the blood had already congealed and no more flowed, and the creatures’ movements didn’t change. These knights could fell a thick tree in a single blow, but they couldn’t cut through muscle and bone that looked half rotten.

‘Come to think of it, did the soldiers’ spears even leave a mark?’

And Simon was going to fight one of those things. The other knights would help, but it still looked dangerous...

The knight commander answered me. “Perhaps we should count ourselves lucky. Mid-grade monsters are rare, but he’ll be fine. Hasn’t Miguel told you?”

“Told me what?”

“Tsk.” The knight commander clicked his tongue quietly. Apparently Miguel had left something out.

My condolences to Miguel when he got scolded later...

“Then watch. You’ll see why nobles rule the world.”

Was I imagining the anger and sorrow beneath his blunt words? I checked his expression, but his face gave nothing away.

Simon stood before the enormous, half-rotten wolf and raised his sword. The monster that had been clashing with the other knights turned to look at him.

ROOOAR!

As if it were alive, the wolf spread its bare-boned jaws and growled. Then it lunged at Simon.

A sudden flare of light.

At that moment, Simon’s sword shone with a soft sky-blue glow. He’d coated the blade in mana.

But the knights had been fighting with mana-coated swords too. That might have been why they’d done more damage than the soldiers, but they still hadn’t dealt a fatal blow...

Simon wasn’t frightened at all. His face was full of confidence, nothing like the expression I’d seen before he died. Neither the knight commander nor the other knights looked worried.

The wolf lunged at Simon with its jaws wide open, and Simon swung his sword at the undead wolf.

Danger!

The small-car-sized wolf engulfed Simon. His head vanished behind the creature’s.

SLICE!

But the next instant, the wolf’s head tipped to one side and fell. Its body remained upright; only the head had come off. Rotten blood welled up from its severed neck, then promptly congealed.

THUD!

The headless undead wolf’s body toppled the other way.

Good grief. I hadn’t expected that at all. Simon was that strong? It had clearly been an ordinary sword. At that level, he could probably beat several knights without much trouble.

Yet neither the Simon I’d seen in my last life nor the Simon who had just brought down that monster had looked so strong. I couldn’t make sense of it, so I had to ask the knight commander.

This time, he gave me a thorough explanation. “The inherited abilities nobles possess came from the heroes who defeated the Demon King during the Great War. Their blood has thinned over time, so the abilities have weakened and only parts of them are inherited now. But they’re deadly to the demons and monsters the Demon King led.”

I’d thought of the heroes as people like comic-book superheroes, gifted with all sorts of powers... Were they actually weapons specialized for fighting the Demon King and demons?

“They’re still more than effective against the monsters left behind after the Demon King and the demons departed. Even the tiny trace of that blood I inherited was enough to make me knight commander.”

I caught a hint of self-reproach in his blunt words.

“The duke and Young Master Simon both have the mana Heart Method of the hero Carlos, founder of our kingdom. It’s an excellent Heart Method against people too, but against monsters, it’s several times more powerful.”

So that was how Simon had taken its head off in one strike?

Simon was still standing before the monster, apparently caught up in the excitement of his first hunt. With his glowing sword in hand and the fallen creature at his feet, he looked rather impressive.

Unfortunately, there were no young girls here to cheer for him.

While Simon struck a pose, the other monster was being finished off too.

As I watched the other fight, the knight commander asked, “Would you like to try fighting it too, Master Alex?”

I looked at the monster, now missing a leg, and shook my head. “I can’t even handle mana properly. Besides, it looks like they’re nearly done.”

The knight commander nodded, satisfied with my answer. So it had been a trap after all. He’d been checking whether I knew my limits and remembered that I was supposed to keep my abilities hidden from Simon.

Honestly, I was curious whether my mana would work against it, but there was no need to get involved.

BANG!

That was when something flew out of the forest: a half-decayed wolf. Another undead wolf. It was hurtling straight toward Simon, who stood there distracted.

An undead wolf fired like a cannonball? It was absurd, but I quickly threw my sword.

WHIRR!

I’d put a spin on the throw, so instead of lodging in the undead wolf, the flat of the blade struck its body.

CLANG!

Perhaps because I’d charged it with mana in time, the undead wolf was knocked slightly to one side. It would have been impossible in my previous life, but with mana, it was entirely doable. All hail mana.

“Gah!”

Simon recoiled in fright as the undead wolf hurtled past him. His impressive pose fell apart in an instant. It was a very good thing there were no young girls around.

THUD.

The knight commander had already rushed forward. He swung his sword at the wolf sprawled on the ground.

CRUNCH!

With a sound of something breaking apart, the wolf’s head shattered.

“Whoa!” My mouth fell open.

Hold on—hadn’t he said his ability was just a tiny trace?

Simon’s eyes were wide too. He seemed just as startled. If that was a tiny trace, was Simon actually weak?

As I wondered, the knight commander tilted his head as well. He examined the monster’s shattered head and frowned.

“It was already dead...”

What did he mean? Of course it was dead. It was undead.

He must have seen my expression, because he explained. “My sword couldn’t have shattered it like this. The monster was already broken before it came flying over here.”

I looked in the direction the undead wolf had come from. A sturdy young man stood among the trees. His face was surprisingly neat for someone of his build. He wore leather armor and held a large, heavy sword in one hand.

A mercenary?

He scratched his head apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it would fly that far.”

The knight commander strode over and stood in front of me. “Are you a noble?” That was the first thing he asked.

The man had killed and sent flying a mid-grade monster that a knight would struggle to handle alone. Or had it gone flying while he was killing it? Either way, someone that skilled could hardly be an ordinary mercenary.

“I am a noble, but... my family cast me out. I have no land or family to call my own, so you can think of me as a commoner.”

What was that supposed to mean? A noble was a noble. How could being cast out of his family make him a commoner? I didn’t understand, but the knight commander did.

He glanced at me, then looked back at the man. “Are you... an illegitimate son?”

“Yes! Which makes me no different from a commoner.”

Oh, so that was it. An illegitimate son. I hadn’t expected to meet someone in the same position as me.

“Hmph!”

While we talked, Simon went back into the carriage, apparently annoyed that he’d been startled. The man had already apologized, though, so Simon’s pride wouldn’t let him make a fuss.

“Oh, the young master looks quite upset. Should I apologize again?”

“That won’t be necessary.” The knight commander shook his head.

“That’s a relief. I was terrified when I thought the young master had been crushed. You look so young, but that was incredible.” He was looking at me as he offered the compliment.

“You saved me too. I was scared enough that I was getting ready to run for it.”

If I hadn’t been there, would Simon have been crushed under that dead monster while the man ran for his life? As I’d felt before, it was fascinating to see how my presence changed things.

Meanwhile, the other monster had been dealt with. After all four of its legs were severed, the knights had hacked at its head over and over as if splitting firewood, until they finally cut it off.

“By the way, where are you headed?”

I looked at the knight commander. Was it all right to tell him?

“To House Hierro.”

Apparently it was. At the knight commander’s answer, the man’s face lit up. His expression was bright, but I felt a creeping unease. What was this about?

“Oh, then may I travel with you?” he asked, sounding genuinely delighted. “I may have been cast out, but House Hierro is my home too.”