Tentacle Monster Reincarnation: I Will Protect the Heroines

Grace, who unconsciously blocked the one released from behind, was confused yet desperately shouted.

“Wha— what, what are you doing! Return to your senses! It’s me, Sacred Knight! I am your ally, you know!?”

“I! I am the number one! In the village, from when I was a kid, always, always! Even though that’s so— just because you’re a woman you—!”

A lower-ranking knight who protected the princess — originally he should have been that.

Grace remembered him as a pleasant man faithful to his duties who never neglected training. She also had memories of often having practice matches with him.

And yet the monster that had mutated from him directed hatred and killing intent at Grace while swinging multiple arms.

While shouting that he hated you, wanted to kill you, wanted to win against you, wanted to be number one.

(What is this. What on earth is happening!?)

She did not understand.

Neither why the men had suddenly transformed, nor what this monster that should originally have been a knight was saying.

She did not understand, but if the base was human she could not kill him. With his level of ability, she could even knock him unconscious—

“Don’t look down on meeeee!”

—Did that thought transmit to the opponent as well?

The monster that had been swinging its multiple arms joyfully put on an extremely pained expression — and charged recklessly.

That killing intent and momentum never reached Grace.

“Hi—”

But she flinched slightly at the feelings poured into it — and involuntarily swung her sword.

It was a slash with her hips pulled back. Far from full power, yet for the man before her it was a fatal blow that could not be avoided no matter how he struggled—

“A, ga, aa… Damn it, damn it, even after becoming this form, I, I…!”

—Vanishing, leaving a black core.

While leaking a voice of agony and a wail.

She still did not understand what was happening.

Neither his lament, nor anything.

Her heart hurt, and she wondered if she herself was committing some terrible mistake.

But now.

Now there is no time to think about such things.

“Burn them away — Holy Flame.”

Therefore she burned.

All the monsters in the throne room.

Those who extended tentacles and assaulted women, those who tried to kill the princess and Grace with enlarged bodies, those who directed sticky gazes this way while breathing roughly.

While understanding that the base was human, she understood that if she did not destroy them here it would become even more terrible.

(—Ah, if I had believed this and acted earlier)

Would they have been able to avoid dying?

Would I have been able to avoid killing them?

While grinding her teeth at the weakness of herself that floated up, she turned her body toward Alter.

“Kuku— Multi-armed Monster Villain and Tentacle Monster Villain, huh. Power and sexual desire. Even in a sacred world, what men think is the same.”

“—Silence, you lowly cur.”

Someone like you has no right to laugh at them.

Everyone was ordinary people who lived their days calmly. There is no way they should have become monsters like that.

—Really?

What floated in her mind was the former knight monster she had just cut down.

If his words, his lament, had originally been something he possessed.

If he had been dissatisfied at being looked down on by her.

If becoming a monster was only a trigger, and the one who was bad, the one who had cornered him was—

“…U, gu, Gray, ce.”

—Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out.

Among the men successively turning into monsters, the voice of her brother who was suffering and groaning yet still retaining human form.

Grace hesitated.

What she should do is protect the princess, fight the man calling himself Alter and the traitor Princess Moldiana.

Ah, but.

If it’s now, if it’s only her brother, she might be able to help before he becomes a monster like that. Thinking that, she could not help hesitating.

“Go, Sacred Knight — no, Grace!”

Altina shouted. Not the title, but the name as a friend.

While pointing the shining holy sword Excalina at Alter and Moldiana, she directed her gaze slightly this way.

“I will be fine; I will not lose to opponents of this level! Please, your family!”

Those were probably words to reassure Grace.

But Moldiana who heard that was briefly blank — and shed tears.

“Kh————Ah, as I thought, Onee-sama thinks that way…!”

In the direction of her gaze, Moldiana readied black twin swords and leaped at Altina.

There was hesitation.

Even if the princess permitted it, under these circumstances she should not move according to personal feelings.

From the time she contracted with a spirit, received a holy sword, and became a Sacred, the priority order has Princess Altina at the top. Therefore she should not prioritize others here.

She fully understood that, but—

“—I’m sorry, I’ll return immediately!”

—But her body moved on its own.

While readying her sword and in the bearing of a knight who protects everyone, she led the remaining women.

“Once you leave the throne room, please go somewhere safe! I will attempt treatment for my brother — him!”

From the sense of mission as a Sacred who protects everyone, she shouted toward the noble women.

It is deception. If she is to fulfill her mission she must not turn her back from this place.

While twisting her face, yet as if urged by the body temperature of her brother who leaked pained breaths, Grace ran.

—She still does not understand by what flow one becomes a monster.

—She does not understand, but after Moldiana brought that flower, after the one called Alter erected the barrier, it became like that.

—Then.

—If she goes outside the barrier, this symptom might subside.

—If it is something derived from the magical power of darkness, if she pours in the magical power of light, it might be cured.

She does not know if this is correct.

She does not know, but — believing this is the best she desperately ran.

But Grace Wayne — Sacred Knight was a warrior with high power, wide range, and high durability.

Her desperately running speed was only about faster than ordinary soldiers, and overwhelmingly slow compared to the other Sacred.

That fact does not mean she is inferior.

It does not, but — at this moment, that slowness was fatal.

“…Grace.”

A somewhat calm tone.

When that rang from her back, Grace was relieved.

Ah, has the condition calmed, she thought.

Then just a little more.

She can save him with just a little more, she thought as she turned and tried to smile—

“Onii-sama, what is wrong? It’s all right, we’ll go to the healing room immediately—”

—The expression that tried to smile twisted in agony.

A sword tip growing from her abdomen. The one stabbed from her back was purified by Grace’s light and vanished. Exactly as if there had been nothing from the beginning.

But the opened abdomen, the blood pouring out dokudoku, would not return to normal.

“Ku— hah”

“Onii—sama”

She collapsed.

More than the pain or the blood loss, she could not stand from the mental damage.

Because — the face of her brother looking down was twisted more evilly than she had ever seen.

Aarg’s body transformed.

The white vestments were swallowed by darkness, and what was generated in their place was jet-black armor. With a heavy metallic gashan sound, Aarg put on a twisted expression of joy.

“Ah, this is it, this is it — I’ve always sought this…! Ah, I must go to the princess immediately—!”

“Wai— wait, please wait, Onii-sama—”

Her brother, Aarg Wayne who had become a dark-colored knight, grew distant.

In a vision distorted by pain and blood loss, Grace desperately stretched out her hand. Why, don’t go, wait — while leaking a thin voice.

But the stretched hand grasped nothing, and she lost consciousness just like that.

————When she awoke, everything was already over.

Her brother who had become a monster — a Monster Villain attacked Princess Altina who was fighting Alter and Moldiana from behind — the princess who was fatigued from the long battle could not withstand it and was defeated.

The princess was abducted, defiled by Alter and her brother who had become a Monster Villain — and when her heart was exhausted and she was on the verge of falling, Sacred Saber repelled Alter. She rescued Princess Altina, it was said.

“I’m sorry — I’m sorry — because I — because I was a fool — this, this — I’m sorry…!”

Hurriedly jumping out of the sickroom, the first thing that entered her eyes was the figure of her friend who was in tatters while shedding tears.

If she herself had not said something like going outside from desire for glory, she could have protected the princess.

If so, she would not have let the Diabolic, would not have let Alter have his way with the princess.

In front of her who was wailing that she herself was a fool, that everything was her responsibility, Grace could not possibly blame her.

(…In the first place, the one who could do nothing was me.)

The one at fault is myself.

This Grace Wayne.

No one else.

Absolutely, absolutely not Leas who rescued the princess.

“Don’t blame yourself so much, Leas.”

Of course it is not as if she has no thoughts.

If only you had been there — she understood the self that becomes emotional like that.

But she cannot do such a shameless thing.

Therefore what she must do is one thing.

Gently embrace the friend who accomplished the feat no one else could of rescuing the princess, and yet still sheds tears.

“Leas. You did what you should do — you are ’not at all at fault.’”

“—Nn — there’s no way…”

That voice was too small, and Grace missed that voice, that wail.

—If.

If at this time Grace’s heart had been calm.

She would have noticed the expression of Leas who opened her eyes in astonishment upon hearing her words — and its meaning as well, surely.

Even if not Grace, Princess Altina or the other Sacred should have been able to notice. Everyone trusted and liked her who was a friend and comrade.

But now no one.

There was no one calm, and Princess Altina also sent words that were like a follow-up blow toward Leas Lot.

“Leas — please, don’t blame yourself so much.”

Because you are not at fault at all.

Without noticing that for the current her, those kinds of words are the most painful.

“—The Diabolic spoke of gathering soldiers, Monster Villains, in a different other world from here — a place called Earth.”

There is no time to rest yet.

While letting fatigue seep into her expression, Altina called the Sacred — Calmate’s strongest warriors — and spoke about the future.

Monster Villains — there is no way they can acknowledge such existences.

Therefore they will defeat the Diabolic on Earth, and the Monster Villains that have occurred.

“Leas, no, Sacred Saber. You who repelled the Diabolic, I want you to head to Earth.”

“—Yes, Princess. I… no, ’I’ will work hard. More, more————”

Therefore that change in first-person pronoun was also misunderstood as the sense of responsibility as a Sacred having strengthened.

Everyone determined that “I am at fault,” that “I must somehow deal with it,” and passed each other by.

—In this way, the stage of the work Magical Warrior Sacred Knights Monster Villain Uproar was set.

The girls who swore to fight for everyone’s sake, for the sake of someone precious — that resolve and pride and everything would be trampled to satisfy the base desires of men.