chapter 36
Episode. 13 Dragon Hunt (2)
In the dreary darkness, three pairs of eyes looked back at each other.
“The King’s Darkness Comes.”
“Darkness will bring another darkness.”
“This weak world will be dyed black.”
Less, the sound of bones crashing echoed very ominously.
“… … .”
One of them, Richie Crombell, suddenly recalled the foreign energy he had felt before.
The energy that contrasted with the darkness.
I tried to send the undead to deal with it, but it failed due to unexpected variables.
But he didn’t bother to tell his comrades.
The energy was very heterogeneous and unpleasant, but the size was very small and insignificant.
“anyway. It will fade away in the cool wind that is about to blow.”
◈ ◈ ◈
“Chwiik, did you say you were a colleague?”
Rapture, who opened his eyes wide, murmured.
It was an attitude that made it difficult to give a definite answer.
“That’s a bit… … It’s difficult to be honest.”
“why?”
“Chwik! Isn’t what you want is a companion who will be with you even after the subjugation?”
I nodded.
“The cases are different between a comrade who faces a common enemy and a comrade who grows up together.”
In short, it meant that since I didn’t know exactly who I was, I couldn’t be a teammate.
Laughter came out.
Is this guy who refuses my offer even in this situation not aware of it, or is he stupid?
Or maybe he had beliefs that I didn’t understand.
But that doesn’t matter anyway.
I stretched out my foot.
puck!
“Kwuik! Why are you kicking it!”
He put his face in the ear of the guy who was smoking to the fullest and whispered.
“You fool. What if I refuse here? Do you want to cut your throat?”
“Ha, but!”
“For now, let’s think about catching a dragon together. Until then, we will be friends.”
After I finished speaking, I stared at Rapture.
The internal conflict was being expressed in real time on that scarred face.
Soon, he took a deep breath and held out his hand.
“Chwiik, please take good care of me. I don’t know how many colleagues this really is.”
Short and thick with worries was just like an oak.
“You will have no regrets.”
He grabbed his hand and turned his head. The fish-eyed knights were standing there.
“Did you hear? Rapture is my ally from now on.”
I shook the hand of Rapture, who was clasped in front of them.
After exactly 3 seconds of silence.
The knights clamored.
“young master! Isn’t this! It was half a threat!”
“I heard you ask if you want to cut your throat!”
I listened to Polk and Jack’s remarkably loud words in one ear.
Whatever the process, it’s true that we became colleagues, cancer.
“Aaron. Let’s see what you say! Didn’t you say that you were the master’s direct subordinate!”
Polk suddenly turned his arrow at Aaron.
However, Aaron’s reaction was very spectacle.
“The Virtue of a Directly Directed Knight, Paragraph 1. I fully abide by the master’s decision.”
It was reciting strange clauses out of nowhere.
“This is the provision I started making this time. It’s something that needs to be built up one by one.”
“Oh, very good. desirable.”
It was time to giggle while facing Aaron.
This time the arrow was pointed at Adele.
“Hey, kid! Do you want to be with that scary orc too? don’t like that Please say no!”
Polk grabbed Adele by the shoulder and begged.
How dare you try to take a child hostage.
“You picked the wrong opponent.”
At Aaron’s words, I expressed my affirmation.
Like that or not, Polk continued to open his mouth.
“If you don’t know about orcs, let me explain. How scary and ugly they are!”
“Chwiik, the Orcs are upset to hear that.”
As Rapture stretched his shoulders, Adele finally opened her mouth.
“Orcs are a strong and courageous race. It is difficult to meet them as enemies, but they are more reliable than anyone else when they are together.”
Unfortunately, Adele wasn’t on Polk’s side either.
“What, what… … !”
“Polk. Why don’t you give up now.”
he grabbed his forehead.
He realized that there was no way to convince him anymore.
Polk, who had closed his eyes once, opened his mouth.
“… … Knights set an example. Before being an orc, he was a colleague of Master Richard.”
The knights reluctantly saluted at Polk’s declaration of surrender.
I took a step back and looked at him, then asked Rapture.
“How does it feel to rise from being an Orc?”
“I feel like I’m sitting on a cushion of thorns, but, well, wouldn’t it be nice to have a conversation with each other? Chwiik!”
It was a theory.
◈ ◈ ◈
“The dragon is coiled on the highest peak of the Hobson Mountains.”
Jack put his finger on one of the mountain range maps.
“What are these scissor marks?”
On the map of the mountain range Jack unfolded, dozens of scissors were drawn around the peak where the dragon lived.
“This is the area where the anti-dragon ballistas are installed.”
“oh.”
It was designed by a dwarf and is quite famous.
Fifteen airlifted it.
“It wouldn’t have been easy.”
“yes. How eccentric the dwarves were. They said they wouldn’t let it go if even one of them was broken.”
Sure enough, Jack frowned as if the memory of being tormented by them came to mind.
“Anyway, the subjugation plan is simple.”
He closed his face and opened his mouth again.
“First, Sir Gide finishes tempering.”
Took-
His finger touched somewhere among the mountains.
He added that Gide was quenching in a deep cave located there.
“Immediately after that, Sir Gide throws a javelin, provoking the dragon.”
At first glance, it sounded like nonsense. Throwing a spear from that distance to the dragon’s peak.
However, quenching can make the impossible possible.
The power that burns life force will make you go beyond human limits for a while.
“Fire the ballista at the dragon floating in the sky. Bring him down to the ground.”
Jack’s explanation continued.
Most of the attacks are handled by Gide, and the Knights assist. If it wasn’t for the power of at least a senior knight, an ambiguous attack against a dragon was useless.
“The plan is really simple.”
“Because fine hair doesn’t work on him in the first place. It’s fortunate that he’s a young dragon.”
He nodded.
The dragons of the Hobson Mountains could be said to be infants whose intellect had not yet developed.
“Chwik, is a human warrior named Gide that strong?”
“The best spearman.”
Aaron answered Rapture’s question. There was no one who disagreed with that resolute tone.
“Chuck! I’ll have to try competing next time!”
One careless orc smiled brightly.
This idiot doesn’t even know what I said.
“Chwiik? Why is everyone looking at you like that?”
Rapture, who belatedly grasped the atmosphere, scratched the back of his head.
“So, what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“All preparations have already been completed. Until Sir Gide’s work is over, all we have to do is subdue the surrounding area and conduct periodic patrols.”
“Right.”
I closed my eyes.
Ten days until Gide’s quenching is over.
An intense tension and a handful of anxiety pounded on my heart.
◈ ◈ ◈
Six days had passed since Richard arrived at the garrison.
A simple meal was held before the final battle.
It was nominally a place to celebrate Richard’s joining, but in reality it was nothing more than a banquet to boost the morale of the knights.
“Somehow, you are overflowing with power! Who cooked this meat?”
The knight who ate the hind leg of the wild boar in one go licked his lips and shouted. The other knights also opened their eyes wide and looked at the food in their hands.
“Did my hand taste this good?”
The low-ranking knight who actually grilled the meat tilted his head.
“It’s worth spending a little bit of faith.”
Richard, who secretly sprinkled the seasoning called faith on the meat, smiled slightly.
“dad. Why don’t you make Shinto?”
Adele asked, digging into Richard’s arms.
“If you hurry, you will be in trouble. There is a very dangerous nobleman.”
Richard remembered the twisted Ludwig.
Judging from Aaron’s reaction so far, if you carelessly and carelessly make fun of your mouth, you don’t know what kind of flat wind will happen.
“Anyway, if you do it halfway, your future will be blocked.”
Of course, it would be a huge benefit if all the members of the 3rd Knights became followers.
But the risk was too great.
If Ludwig directly steps forward and bans religion, the evangelism activities in Battenberg will go through the water.
For Richard, who had not yet established himself, he had to avoid such a thing.
“Who are you? I’ll punish you!”
“Arthur. Then you become a firewood.”
Richard patted Adele on the head.
Suddenly, a useless thought crossed my mind, “Will there be any special effect if I make firewood from the World Tree?”
“Bar, I think Dad just had a scary thought… … .”
“Anyway, the seeds have been sown, so you just have to wait.”
Richard remembered the first knight commander, Leo.
Soon, the war between the lich and the knights will begin.
There will be countless victims, and those in despair will shed tears.
“People seek God when they are in trouble.”
I think it was said sometime ago, but at that time, a lot of things will change.
It was when Richard drew the future in his head.
“Oh, what a great human warrior! My temporary ally!”
Rapture with a full stomach came to Richard’s shoulder.
“Just call me Richard. I’m sweating more than that, so I’m off!”
“Chwiik, that’s too much.”
Rapture laughed humorously at Richard’s reprimand. In the meantime, Rapture worked hard to become friends with the knights.
From Richard’s point of view, who was watching from the side, it was to the point of tears.
Still, that effort must have paid off, and now, after 15 days, he was able to blend in with the knights to some extent.
“Are you a real orc? What kind of orc is so friendly?”
“To me, they are not just human beings. Chwiik, a comrade who will punish a common enemy. Orcs value harmony among comrades.”
“… … .”
It was an answer that made me think a lot.
Indeed, humans are divided into knights and wizards and are at odds with each other.
At that, Adele smiled and opened her mouth.
“Pig, you’re talking quite nice.”
“Okay, a pig! Good luck!”
When Rapture jumped up and made a snapping sound, the knights who were looking this way burst into laughter.
“young master.”
Richard turned his head at the voice he heard next to him. There was Aaron holding three glasses full of beer.
“Aaron.”
“You’re here.”
“Chwiik. I think the servant came.”
He, who suddenly became a servant, smiled and held out the beer mug in his hand.
It was a beer that was allowed only one glass per person to avoid excessive drinking before the battle.
“Would you like to say a toast?”
“What about a toast, just drink it.”
Richard waved his hand in disgust.
Saying a toast was a big challenge for Riharat, who could never be said to be very sociable, and to be honest, worse than Rapture.
“Chwiik, if you take it out of a place like this, it will be used!”
“you’re right! Please say something!”
Rapture and the knights around him even helped. In response to that torch, Richard eventually stood up with a glass of wine.
“fist! Bocchan’s toast!”
An excited Polk intervened, drawing the attention of the knights.
Richard muttered that this was all because Aaron was talking nonsense and looked around the crowd.
The gazes of the knights sitting on their seats in the clearing focused on him.
Unlike a few days ago, it wasn’t a very hostile gaze.
Richard caught his breath.
What to say to them, what to say to them. My mind was complicated.
“There must still be people I am uncomfortable with.”
He opened his mouth with difficulty and fixed his eyes on each of the knights.
“Whether you like me or not. don’t die If you feel like dying, just get back.”
Gide will never let you die.
If it is the fruit of the world tree, it can be saved.
However, there was only one fruit that Adele could bear now. The rest you have to figure out on your own.
“The survivors will give me a chance to kick my ass.”
After finishing his speech, he awkwardly shouted a toast.
It was a truly demoralizing toast.
“What a toast!”
“Boo!”
The knights booed playfully.
They are not stupid either.
He knew very well what kind of pressure Richard was feeling.
For the past six days, Richard had been diligently helping the knights with their work.
No, I tried to take the lead every time and take on the dirty work.
He even went on patrol to the deepest part of the mountain range on horseback, and he personally cut down several monsters wandering around the garrison.
It even quietly disappeared and came hunting a few wild boars.
If Rapture tried to get along with the knights, Richard silently embraced his burden alone.
And that look was enough to melt the men’s hearts.
“Eh, for the young master! Cheers!”
“for!”
Because of this, they raised the tension and raised the atmosphere. Each of them had their own delight hanging from their lips.
“Chwiik, that was the worst toast in my life!”
“Noisy.”
Richard sat down again and sipped his beer.
It was the day before four days before facing the dragon.