God of Knight

Chapter 17 - The Old Woman’s Roar

Throughout the journey, Grandma Chiyo never stopped telling Kenzou and Kazan stories about her youth.

Kenzou laughed at each new tale. Kazan gripped his knees and waited for the next pause that never seemed to come.

“Young man! Smile. If you keep being so quiet, your handsome face might age prematurely,” said Grandma Chiyo.

Kenzou laughed even harder at Grandma Chiyo’s words, while Kazan could only curse silently.

“Stop right there!”

Five armed men stepped across the road. Kenzou pulled on the reins before the horse reached their swords.

“Get off the carriage right now!” said one of them, pointing his sword at them.

Kazan recognized three faces from the inn. His hand tightened on the carriage’s side.

“What do you want? Get out of our way!” said Grandma Chiyo.

“Don’t argue with us. Follow our orders immediately, or we’ll kill you all!” shouted one of them.

Kenzou set the reins down and stepped onto the road. His gaze moved beyond the five men to the trees on either side.

“You’re all members of that band of robbers I captured back then. Why are your comrades hiding? Tell them all to come out!” said Kenzou.

Eight more men emerged from cover. Thirteen swordsmen now stood around the carriage.

“Kenzou-sensei! We’d better just leave—don’t pay attention to them!” said Grandma Chiyo.

“Hahahaha! Do you really think you can just walk away from me?” a voice suddenly rang out from all directions.

Kenzou turned toward the trees where the voice had begun, ignoring its echo elsewhere.

“You’d better come out and face me like a knight!” Kenzou challenged.

A throwing blade cut through the leaves toward his face.

He shifted his head and caught its handle as it passed.

“What a unique blade!” said Kenzou, examining the white handle.

Five more blades followed before he could lower his hand.

“Kazan, stay in the carriage!” He used the blade he held to knock the first incoming weapon aside, then turned his wrist through the others.

CLANG! CLANG!

Blades spun into the roadside earth and struck the carriage’s wheel.

Eight swordsmen closed around Kenzou. The other five slipped past him toward the passengers.

“You two, get down here right now!” one of them snapped.

“Oh, my… You’re still young, but you don’t know how to be polite to your elders. Besides, it’s very hard for me to get down,” said Grandma Chiyo.

“I don’t care if you’re old or young! If you won’t, I’ll force you—”

SMACK!

“Ouch!”

Chiyo’s cane cracked against the nearest man’s head. His reaching hand dropped, and he staggered away from the carriage.

“I told you to watch your manners when speaking to your elders! Do you want me to hit you again?” said Grandma Chiyo.

He jumped back, clutching his head with both hands.

Kazan stayed on the seat. He had barely seen her move the cane.

On the road, Kenzou turned one sword aside only to meet another. Between those strokes, throwing blades kept flashing out of the trees.

“You coward!” He drew a breath and gathered his Ki.

“Lion’s Roar!”

The sound wave hurled the incoming blades back toward the trees.

The eight swordsmen lost their footing. Some hit the road hard and lay clutching their injuries; the others struggled to stand.

“So you’re a Knight of Light! No wonder all my attacks were useless.” A man in an off-white robe appeared.

“So you’re the one who threw those blades earlier? You finally showed up!” said Kenzou.

“My name is Ichiro Munenori, the Wind Blade! Before our Leader gets angry, you’d better surrender peacefully!” He looked at his five men, who seemed terrified of an old woman.

“What are you doing? Hurry and catch that kid and that hunchbacked old woman!” shouted Ichiro.

“Hahaha! Do you really think they can catch that old woman?” said Kenzou.

“What do you mean? Are you saying that the old woman who can barely walk is a knight?” asked Ichiro.

“You’d better go over there and try to defeat her—don’t forget to bring all your members to attack her! If you can defeat her, then I’ll gladly surrender to you!” said Kenzou.

Ichiro looked at the five men gathered before Chiyo, then at Kenzou. None of his men would meet his eyes.

“Fine. Keep your promise!” He beckoned four of the swordsmen who could still stand and led them toward the carriage.

“Be careful not to break any bones!” said Kenzou with a chuckle.

Kenzou stayed beside the road, watching without reaching for Kazan. He knew the old woman who sat between the boy and those swords.

“Ouch, my old back!” Chiyo held out a hand. Kazan helped her down from the carriage.

“That’s enough, young man. You’d better get back on the carriage! Let me teach them some manners first!” said Grandma Chiyo.

“B-but Grandma?”

“No arguing.” She waved him back onto the seat and turned toward the five men waiting nearest her.

They backed away as she approached, each watching the cane instead of making the first move.

Ichiro’s reprimand snapped the five men out of their daze.

“Catch her!” One lunged, and the others followed.

“Come here! I’ll teach you how to speak to your elders!” said Grandma Chiyo.

CRACK!

“Aaarrgh!”

Her cane swept low across three advancing legs. Three men fell, crying out as their calves bent beneath them.

Kazan leaned forward. The cane had seemed almost lazy in her hand; none of the men had cleared its path in time.

The cracking bones left no doubt about the force behind it.

“Grandma, watch out!” Three throwing blades shot toward her from behind.

Chiyo turned her wrist without looking back. The blades struck the rotating cane and lodged in its wood.

“Wow… these are nice blades—they’d be perfect for the kitchen!” said Grandma Chiyo. Then she looked toward Ichiro, who had arrived with four others.

Kazan looked from the blades in her cane to the men on the ground.

“Who exactly is Grandma Chiyo?” Kazan wondered.

Ichiro stopped a few paces away. All three blades were embedded in her ordinary wooden cane.

“Everyone, attack at once!” shouted Ichiro.

The six men still standing nearest her spread into a ring—the two left from the original five and the four Ichiro had brought. Ichiro remained outside it.

“Young people only dare attack in a mob now? Do you deserve to be called knights?” Chiyo planted her cane in the earth.

“Lion’s Roar!”

ROAR!

All six men were flung out of the ring. Bodies struck the nearby trunks, and leaves rained onto the road. Kenzou’s earlier roar had been faint beside this one.

Ichiro slid backward too. He drove Ki through his body and checked his momentum before he could hit a tree.

He opened his mouth, but heard nothing—not his own breath, not the falling men. Blood trickled from both ears.