Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 189

Humans are always yearning for hope, and what the continent, now covered in despair, needed most was hopeful news.

“They say Sir Karl has come to save the west!”

“Lord Karl…!?”

“Ah… the Knight of Salvation has come.”

Some called me Sir Karl as a knight, some called me Lord, some called me Count, and some called me by my nickname, but whatever name they called me by, the people of the west now recalled my face with the word hope.

In the minds of those who had never seen my face, I was just a light and a myth.

“We too! Let’s join Sir Karl!”

“Will we… be of any help? I don’t know if we’ll just be a burden if we go.”

“That is….”

People thought about the realistic part. If they met monsters and fought, they would be a burden, not a military force.

“Then…! Let’s go to the area that Sir Karl has subjugated and find something to help with there! There will be work to do, like building barriers or repairing castles. Even Sir Karl, who has no connection to us, is helping us most fiercely, so we can’t just be like this, can we!”

“Oh…! That’s a good idea! Let’s go and see!”

They were lives that had fled and fled from the domains they had lived in to come this far anyway. There was nowhere else to flee from here. It might be better to rebuild an environment where people can survive in the areas that Karl had subjugated, as they could be considered somewhat safe zones.

And so, people began to flock to the places I had passed. They naturally built barriers to block the monsters I had swept away and formed their own soldiers.

In the meantime, the knights of the west who had lost their focal point and had been wandering, flocked to join my army, leading groups or individually.

I did not stop them from joining. In any case, if it became a long-term war, it would be difficult with only the current personnel from the north. They had to sweep away the monsters and also set up defensive formations.

Considering various factors, the more knight-grade personnel, the better.

“My liege, the number of western knights who have volunteered to join the army has already exceeded 500.”

“The organization?”

“It’s already been finalized. There are former commanders and vice-commanders who led knight orders, so it’s being organized easily.”

I nodded lightly. 500 knights was by no means a small force.

“Organize 200 of the knights as troops to protect the three nearby domains. The castle to be restored will be Lemang Castle.”

“What are your plans for the refugees?”

“Put them all into the restoration of Lemang Castle. Have them proceed with everything from restoring the castle walls to creating barriers, and send a message to the Arthur Domain to dispatch an administrator and 10 dwarves to command the restoration of the castle.”

“I will follow your orders!”

The work was carried out in an instant.

The place I had restored was crowded with the refugees of the west. They moved to restore the foundations of the west more diligently than anyone else.

“When the restoration is complete, distribute a certain amount of land to those who helped with the restoration work. If there are any who oppose, tell them to speak to me. If the nobles oppose, let them know that it is a matter permitted by Emperor Ellenhower.”

I had already conveyed this story to Ellenhower in the process of subjugating the west. Ellenhower was supporting me to the extent that he would grant me the entire west if it was a story from me, who was taking on the subjugation on my own.

It was a situation where he could not stop the terrible monster invasion that had occurred from the first year of his enthronement with his own strength alone. Moreover, it was not a problem of whether he could maintain his authority as emperor now.

In the face of a disaster at the level of whether humanity would perish or survive, it was not a matter of raining on the parade of my actions, who had stepped forward as a savior, let alone helping.

“I will convey it so.”

“And, tell them to proceed with the education of the soldiers. Since the knights are remaining, tell them to teach swordsmanship. Now is not the time to be protecting things like secret techniques or traditions. It’s a situation where we have to find and use anyone with talent, whether they are commoners or beggars.”

Due to the great invasion, many skilled soldiers, as well as knights, had died, and the military strength had been greatly weakened.

Now, even one more hand was needed. If the knights shared their skills, there would surely be those among the common people who could reach the level of a knight.

Being from the previous world with a modern way of thinking, I knew well the obvious fact that if the population base increased, the number of talented people would eventually increase.

“We are moving to the next location!”

The flag with a diagonal cross and a shield on a white background fluttered, and I and my knights began to move once again. Now, with the inclusion of the western knights, the number of personnel, which had become 1,300, began to sweep through the entire west without hesitation.

“This time, I’m at the front! Hahahaha!”

The Pope, who had been living in seclusion, I don’t know how, burst into a mad laugh on the battlefield and was blowing away the monsters with a single punch.

Sometimes, the punch he threw with all his might, along with a sacred white light, blew away dozens of monsters at once. Those who saw its formidable power were getting farther and farther away from the Pope.

Even the Holy Knights, said to be the Pope’s most loyal military force, were now fighting at a distance from the Pope.

“How about you take it easy?”

“What do you mean? Isn’t killing those evil monsters with a single blow the greatest dignity a Pope can show? Uahahahaha.”

The Pope, who had slapped my back hard with his bear-like palms and burst into a loud laugh, once again threw himself and landed in the middle of the monster group.

The huge body of the Pope, who had jumped dozens of meters and landed, created a crater on the ground with the shockwave.

The knights who saw the monsters being horribly blown away along with the hole the Pope had created even felt sorry for the monsters.

“Really, is he really the Pope?”

Nod.

I nodded. And my aura also split the sky.

***

The subjugation of the west by me and the knights continued successfully. As the knights and soldiers of the west, who had lost their focal point and had been wandering, continued to join me, the number of me and my knights, which had been 1,300, had at some point increased to 2,000.

It meant that a whopping 1,000 of the knights in the west had joined me. People rode the wind of hope that I had blown.

And so, a full 6 months passed, and the west finally regained some stability.

Thanks to that, the number of monsters being pushed from the west to the central region also decreased significantly, and as the central region gained some breathing room, the eastern and central armies were able to join forces and defend. And so, the continent also began to find some stability.

Of course, considering the enormous number of monsters appearing in the east and south, there was still a long way to go. But it was incomparably more hopeful than a year ago when the monster invasion had begun.

“My liege, it seems this point is the last base.”

While subjugating the west, they had made a map of the monster bases here and a detailed map of the western terrain. And so, I and the subjugation force were finally left with only the last monster base in the west.

“…”

Everyone showed a strange expression. When they first set out on this expedition, no one had thought that this expedition would succeed. Wouldn’t it be a relief if they just didn’t die? It was a journey that had started with that kind of heart.

But just by looking at my back and coming this far, they were now close to the final journey of the west.

In particular, the western knights seemed to have a great surge of emotion, and they lowered their heads and their eyes reddened.

“If you’re going to get sentimental, do it after it’s completely finished.”

My indifferent tone pierced through their sentiments. The knights snapped to their senses at my single word.

“All, regroup! Prepare for a clash!”

Kelvin, who looked at me with a new eye for changing the atmosphere with a single word, also firmly gripped the reins of his horse by my side. And a moment later, I and the expeditionary force faced a large-scale monster group.

“Hmm…!”

The moment they faced the monsters, the Pope’s eyebrows twitched. Along with his twitching eyes, his newly acquired scar also moved.

“Are those them?”

Nod.

The Pope nodded. The being that had scarred the face of the Pope, who was close to a Transcendent. A body made of gray with no boundaries. And a skin that seemed to have the texture of rubber. It had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but they were gray, so it was a strange creature that didn't feel like a living thing.

‘A strange feeling.’

For some reason, I didn't feel any sense of life from them. From the beings that existed in this world, I could feel qi. Whether it was large or small. Even if I felt a wall at a high realm, I could know the presence or absence of qi, the source of life.

But the gray beings in front of me now did not feel the basic qi that life possessed.

‘Unpleasant.’

It was an unspeakably uncomfortable and very unpleasant feeling.

“General Bastien, Pope, those other than me should absolutely not clash with those gray objects. Avoid them at all costs.”

The number of gray objects was five. I would take on three, and the other two people would have to take on the other two.

The ones, including me, who had exchanged signs, began to charge towards the monsters. A monster army of nearly 5,000 and the expeditionary force of 3,000 clashed.

Kwaaaang!

The sound of aura exploding, the sound of the weapons wielded by giant monsters and the swords of the knights clashing, covered the plain.

“Keoook!”

A gray monster attacked the place where the knights were in the middle of the melee. About ten knights who couldn't avoid the falling creature were caught in the clash and died on the spot.

The gray monster's body stuck to the ground like clay at the point of impact and then came off.

Its whole body seemed to be made of a rubber-like material with viscosity. But that didn't mean there was no impact. All those who were hit by it had their bodies burst as if they had been crushed on the ground.

It was a gruesome scene, but strangely, it didn't feel real. I frowned and threw myself towards the gray monster.

Woooooong!

The golden aura that bloomed from my sword split the gray monster’s body.

“Kieeeeeek!”

A grating screeching sound that was unpleasant to hear struck my eardrums. It meant that my aura was clearly effective against them.

Bastien’s blue aura and the Pope’s divine power were relatively resisted by them, but strangely, they seemed particularly vulnerable to my aura.

“Hweeeeee!”

The strange creature that made a sound like the wind chose to flee by flying into the air. One of its arms had been cut off by my aura a moment ago.

[Karl Meyer Style. 6th Form. Ascension]

The light of the golden aura scattered in all directions like golden powder and began to soar rapidly into the sky. Fleeing into the air would be a sufficiently effective escape method for ordinary knights, but it was a story that did not apply to me at all.

My aura instantly swallowed the body of the gray monster that was flying into the air.

“Kieeeeek?”

The creature showed a momentarily flustered expression at the sudden swarm of golden aura light, and then its body began to be erased by the aura in an instant. It desperately tried to escape by soaring higher into the air, but, the golden aura particles spread much faster and erased the fleeing creature completely.

The moment one disappeared, I was about to throw myself quickly towards another one.

Kuuuuung!

A gray creature that looked twice as large as the normal ones landed in front of me.

“Hmm….”

The creature was not just large; it had four tentacles extending from its back in two branches. On top of that, it was emitting a gray qi-like energy. Official source ıs novel•fire.net

It was still an unpleasant feeling with no sense of life, but the gray qi was definitely a type of energy.

“Where on earth did they come from….”

If this was really a game, would the creator of this world have made something like that a monster and put it here? I had been thinking a little differently lately.

Because I had come here through a game, I had always considered this place a trash game and had lived that way.

The system window that appeared, the missions that were resolved, and the rewards were enough to make me believe that this was a world inside a game.

But.

‘Perhaps….’

Perhaps it really wasn't that anymore, I thought.

At that moment, the gray monster’s tentacles began to fly towards me.