Chapter 110
Chapter 110
When Isabel was distracted by Leios’s appearance, the others tried to recall where they had seen that face before, but soon all of them shook their heads.
“Most of the mages in the Empire were identified a long time ago. A young brat like that wouldn’t have been on the list, would he?”
“Well, every now and then geniuses suddenly pop up out of nowhere, don’t they?”
At those words, Descartes’s face twisted mercilessly.
To him, who had failed to overcome the wall of talent, the word genius was like touching a reverse scale.
Clenching his fists until his hands turned white, Descartes ground his teeth and let a ferocious aura rise.
“I abandoned being human to cross the wall. There’s no way I’d be pushed back by some fledgling whose baby hair hasn’t even fallen out.”
As it looked like the real fight was about to begin, the white-haired man who had been quietly observing the situation opened his mouth.
“Then my task of planting the demon’s seed is finished, so I’ll be heading back now. The Holy Kingdom has been quite sensitive lately, keeping a close eye on our movements.”
“Alright. If any information comes in, be sure to contact me.”
After bowing lightly to Azazel, he promptly erased his presence.
Now only four remained.
Among them, Azazel, Isabel, and Descartes were the two Sword Masters and the mage confirmed by the Count of Leipzig.
The last one was an existence even the Count did not know, as he had not stepped forward, cloaked in a robe pulled down to the tips of his hair.
Azazel gestured to him and spoke.
“Alright then, shall we have a little fun now?”
When the golem was neutralized, the soldiers’ morale soared without limit.
However, the monster legion no longer waited for us.
Kugugugugugugugung-!
As if a charge order had been given, a force numbering in the thousands rushed toward the castle like mad.
“Fire! Pour it all out! We just need to hold on until reinforcements arrive tomorrow!”
Large-bodied trolls and ogres found it difficult to climb the castle walls directly.
Thus, they served as stepping stones for other, relatively smaller monsters.
What climbed up onto the walls were the orcs and goblins that made up the majority of the monster legion.
They sprang up the stepping stones with agile movements and hurled themselves at the walls, but the knights and soldiers did not permit their intrusion.
For a while, it seemed as though the monster attacks were being repelled with ease atop the walls.
Thud!
Then, piercing through the monsters’ roars, a loud crash accompanied by billowing dust echoed out.
Looking down beyond the walls, I saw that while they were not the same ones covered in demonic energy as before, dozens of golems had appeared.
Rather than merely slamming their bodies into the walls, they hurled large monsters like trolls and ogres into the castle.
Unable to withstand the force, some were torn apart miserably and turned into pulp, but most survived stubbornly, even if wounded, and struggled back to their feet.
“Knights, deal with the trolls and ogres!”
As large monsters fell inside the walls, chaos once again dyed the ramparts.
Seeing this, the Count, who had been observing the battle from the watchtower, asked a knight.
“What about the troops brought in from the surrounding territories?”
“They’re scheduled to rotate in when the stamina of those currently fighting drops.”
At that, I nodded.
If one fought at full strength from the very start of the war, one could not endure the flow.
Thus, dividing forces and rotating them, as the knight said, was the standard approach.
Especially since what we were facing now were monsters, not fellow humans.
Their stamina was several times better than that of ordinary humans, and even if they were hungry, their staple food lay scattered nearby.
On top of that, most wounds healed quickly, making them truly beings specialized for war.
‘Normally, it wouldn’t make sense for monsters of so many races to be bound together like this.’
Monsters moved by instinct, but as humanoid beings, they possessed at least a minimum of reason.
Yet seeing them charge blindly, radiating killing intent, it seemed they were being controlled, just like back in Britain.
“I’ll join the fight as well.”
When the heat of the battlefield reached its peak, I declared that I would start moving.
The monsters’ offensive was reckless and indiscriminate.
Even so, most areas were holding up well, but some sectors were beginning to be pushed back.
The Count, who had to grasp the overall situation and command the war, and the knights who had to protect him, needed to remain in the watchtower.
But there was no need for me to do so.
If I fought while suppressing my presence, without even using an aura blade, who would pay attention to me?
Unless a Majin personally stepped in, no one would notice any anomaly.
“I’ll come with you.”
As I headed down from the watchtower, Petra followed after me.
The Count seemed to have something he wanted to say, his mouth moving uncertainly, but he soon let out a sigh and sent his gaze toward me.
“…….”
At those earnest eyes that pleaded for me to take good care of his daughter, I gave a small nod.
In most situations, being with me would be safer than staying here.
Slice.
As I came down from the watchtower and swung my sword, the body of an orc climbing the wall split apart lightly.
Orcs and goblins could be taken down sufficiently even by the soldiers, so long as they did not let their guard down.
The problem lay with higher monsters like trolls and ogres.
Tireless golems kept endlessly throwing them into the castle, and skirmishes began to break out everywhere.
Thud-!
Just then, an ogre dropped down in front of me.
The edge of the wall was shaved away a bit, but the creature rose without any visible injury.
Looking at its face, it seemed it hadn’t taken no damage at all, as it let out a ferocious howl with a twisted expression.
Kreeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-!
The pressure emitted by the upper monster dominated the surroundings.
For ordinary soldiers, it would have created a fatal crisis, freezing their limbs and stiffening their bodies.
In a normal situation, it certainly would have.
“……?”
The ogre looked around with a puzzled gaze.
Normally, those around it would have been trembling helplessly, but now, fierce battles were still raging.
Releasing my own momentum to cancel out its pressure, I let out a light sneer and kicked off the ground.
Kreeeeeng!
Only then did the ogre notice my existence and swing an arm as thick as a great tree, but I cut through its body along with the arm.
Thud-!
The creature that collapsed in halves writhed on the ground, spewing green bodily fluid.
Seeing no sign of recovery or rising again, I turned away without hesitation.
“I’ve already taken down one with two heads, so one like this is child’s play.”
Having reached a realm beyond human limits, an ogre was now an easy opponent.
No matter how much of a Sword Expert one was, one could not defy the basic principles.
Even if one reinforced the body with mana, the limits of the human body were clear.
But upon reaching Sword Master, my physical composition had changed, and my mana had increased explosively to a ridiculous degree.
Naturally, the efficiency spoke for itself.
With less effort than before, I could produce far greater power.
‘If the genre of this novel had been a martial arts story, I’d probably be around the Hwagyeong realm by now.’
As I cut down my fifth troll, the thought crossed my mind that it might have been fun to possess a martial arts world instead.
Either way, I would have known where fortuitous encounters or treasures lay, monopolized them, then trained somewhere deep in the mountains.
Then I would have emerged into the martial world, and perhaps been called something like Divine Dragon or Divine Sword.
Since the genre of my first work as a writer had been martial arts, I felt a slight sense of nostalgia.
‘…When I return to reality, should I try writing again?’
Strictly speaking, the content of my second work had been quite similar to my current situation.
Back then, it had been criticized for lacking plausibility and realism, but if I organized what I had personally experienced here like a memoir, I thought it might turn into quite a decent work.
“…Still, if you’re going to nitpick realism, I still don’t get why you read novels in the first place.”
Muttering an old hateful comment I had once received, I let out a bitter smile.
The battlefield fell into a stalemate.
With the edge of the walls as the boundary, it became a back-and-forth struggle.
“……?”
At a glance, it looked as though Leipzig’s soldiers were holding the balance thanks to their valiant efforts, but the monsters’ movements were somehow strange.
Their numbers still amounted to several thousand.
But unlike before, when they had charged recklessly, now they seemed to be deliberately engaging in a war of attrition.
‘As if they’re controlling the pace…….’
“Lord! The gate is in danger due to a group of ogres that appeared at the western gate!”
At that moment, piercing through the clamor of the battlefield, a knight’s urgent voice rang out.
In short, while the monster legion was assaulting the southern gate here, a detachment had attacked the western gate.
It was wartime, so the south would have been sufficiently guarded, but with the sheer number of monsters appearing here, all but the minimum necessary forces had been drawn to this side.
Inevitably, it would be relatively vulnerable.
“Dispatch the waiting Ragenvalshfort Order of Knights to the west.”
The number of monsters attacking the western gate was not that large, but most were upper monsters, making it difficult for ordinary soldiers to handle them, hence the struggle.
The Ragenvalshfort Order of Knights should be more than enough to deal with them.
Still, I felt an uneasy sensation.
“Count, I’ll head there as well.”
Returning to the watchtower, I spoke to him.
Petra tried to follow me again, but I shook my head.
“A Majin might appear. If that happens, I won’t be able to focus on you.”
This time, it would be safer for her to stay here with the knights.
“…….”
Petra bit her lip and nodded, gripping Crimson Lotus tightly—the sword I had given her.
She probably knew best herself.
That she was not yet strong enough to stand by my side.
“Then, please take care.”
“Don’t worry, and focus on the situation here. If a Majin appears, send a messenger.”
I immediately went down, mounted the horse that had been idling below, and chased after the knights who had already headed west.
But before I could ride very far, I felt a chilling killing intent sweep across the back of my neck.
Tadat-!
Without hesitation, I kicked off the saddle and leapt up.
Flipping my body in midair and landing on the ground, I saw the sight of my horse collapsing forward, its head severed.
“So you’ve finally arrived.”
Turning my head, I saw a figure step forward, pale green hair fluttering as she revealed herself before me.
Pitch-black irises and bright yellow pupils.
They were unmistakable proof that she was a Majin.
‘One of the Sword Masters the Count mentioned.’
Long pale-green hair and a refreshingly handsome appearance.
I searched my memory just in case, but unfortunately, she seemed to be someone who had not appeared in the original work.
‘Looks like I’ll have to revise the plan a bit.’
Many things had happened so far, but in terms of the original story’s flow, it hadn’t even reached the mid-to-late part of volume one yet.
The vice-captain of the Ragenvalshfort Order of Knights, who had faced Majin before, had said they were at least Sword Master level.
But I had thought they were, at best, mediocre types like those who had appeared in the Kingdom of Demedrio during the Academic Festival, and even if they were Sword Master level, I believed they had only just stepped into that realm.
However, the aura emanating from her entire body was absolutely not below mine.
“Pretty thing, I thought you were a mage, but you move well too? Looks like you’ve learned swordsmanship as well?”
She walked slowly toward me with a deep smile.
Within that relaxed demeanor overflowed a confidence that she could capture me at any moment.
“Of course. I’m quite a versatile person.”
Keeping my left hand behind my back, I tightened my grip on my sword with my right, ready to strike her down the instant an opening appeared.
“This big sister is called Isabel, so what might our pretty one’s name be?”