Chapter 66
Chapter 24 He Has Arrived (3)
Deep in the hills, not far from Drain Castle, once the lord’s seat, there was a small village.
It was a very small village with the feel of a slash-and-burn settlement, but oddly, there were no children or elderly people.
It was filled entirely with young men.
Yet, because high mountains surrounded it on all sides, no one outside could see that such a village existed.
“Yaaawn! It’s boring just being stuck way out here in the mountains.”
“Can’t be helped. The lord’s brat is in Drain Castle. We have to keep our heads down for the time being.”
“I know, but it’s boring. At this rate, my joints are going to rust.”
“They rusted ages ago. It’s not like you’ve ever had a proper fight.”
The middle-aged man guarding alongside him chuckled.
They had engaged in something resembling real combat at first, but later, there had been no need to fight.
Once their numbers had far exceeded a hundred, most had chosen surrender over fighting.
And they did not kill those who surrendered, either.
Even after raiding countless villages in the marquisate, they had never crossed the line.
They knew all too well that the royal court’s response would become severe the moment they did.
“Hey! Do you have any idea how much I’ve trained over the years?”
“And what good does that do? You never received a knighthood.”
“Tch! If the Madraine Marquisate had remained intact for just three more years, I would’ve become a knight too.”
“Pfft! Three years? Come on, that’s not happening.”
The middle-aged man laughed incredulously.
He found it ridiculous that the other man was talking about three years when he knew perfectly well what the man’s abilities were.
“You never know how life will turn out, you know? If I’d kept training hard, it wouldn’t have taken three years! I might’ve become a knight in less than two!”
“That’s some impressive self-delusion.”
“What was that?”
“My friend, let’s face reality. No matter how you look at it, that’s not happening.”
The middle-aged man shook his head.
People should hold on to dreams and hopes even after becoming middle-aged, but they shouldn’t harbor fruitless dreams.
Their dreams needed to be at least somewhat realistic.
“Are we friends or enemies?”
“Both. Heh-heh!”
“Why did he come here when he doesn’t even care about the territory? He should’ve gone straight to the royal palace.”
“Brad called him, apparently. That stubborn bastard.”
“If I get the chance, I’ll have to cut his head off. Then he’ll never pull something like this again.”
Janghan, who had received a rebuke, if one could call it that, let his eyes gleam ominously.
Since Brad was practically the reason he was stuck in this remote mountain backwater, he made a sincere vow.
If the opportunity arose, he would not hesitate to cut Brad’s throat.
“That’s dangerous. Do you think the royal family will sit still if you kill someone recognized as an administrator? It’s not for no reason that we don’t kill the territory’s people. We have to avoid crossing the line as much as possible.”
“We can make it look like he went missing. Is this our first time doing a job or two? If all else fails, we can send an assassin.”
“You’ve really become a villain.”
“Heh-heh! A bandit or a villain, what’s the difference? But this is all because of that damned lord. If he hadn’t fired me, I wouldn’t have gone this far.”
Janghan ground his teeth.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
Even if he had been an apprentice knight of the Madraine Marquisate, it was unfair that he had not even been given a chance.
Especially since he had been an elite asset who was so close to receiving his knighthood.
“The current lord certainly did have a major impact.”
“He should’ve given me at least a chance!”
“Thanks to him, we can live in comfort. When you look at it one way, it’s a good thing. Being driven out let us live freely as bandits. If we’d received our knighthoods, we wouldn’t have been able to live this free.”
“I’ll admit that. I don’t regret giving up the life of a knight at all.”
Compared to living like a monk bound by rigid conventions, their current life was freedom itself.
There were no stifling rules, and they had no responsibilities to shoulder.
They had come to understand perfectly why outlaws existed.
“The problem is whether the lord will let this go. A report about us must have reached him.”
“Would he even care? He only stays at the villa in Baden Village. I hear a steward named Alfredo handles most of the territory’s affairs.”
“Even so, the lord has the final say. And he’s also a spirit caller who might be the strongest person in Folstein.”
Concern clouded the middle-aged man’s face.
Jade might be hiding himself away, but he was still a spirit caller.
Since Jade was capable of freely commanding earth and wind spirits and unleashing calamity-level power, unease began to creep over the middle-aged man.
“Even a spirit caller can’t find where we’re hiding. Not unless someone on the inside betrays us.”
“True. I’m worrying for nothing—”
The middle-aged man’s eyes flew wide.
A black speck he had happened to notice in the sky was gradually drawing closer.
“What is it?”
“L-Look over there!”
“Huh?”
Seeing his close friend looking as though he had seen a ghost, Janghan also raised his head.
Then his eyes widened in the same way.
He could see a human flying toward them through the sky.
“N-No way!”
“It can’t be, it can’t be! How did he find this place?”
Ding, ding, ding!
Unlike Janghan, who was trembling like a leaf in terror, the middle-aged man reacted at once.
He frantically shook the bell beside him.
At that, men poured out from all over the village.
“What’s going on?”
“Are monsters attacking?”
“But there’s no sound.”
The men who had rushed outside at the sound of the alarm bell looked around frantically.
Yet nowhere could they see or hear a monster’s roar.
“There! Look over there!”
“The sky!”
“Huh?”
The men finally noticed what the two sentries were looking at, raised their heads, and wore stunned expressions.
They had spotted a young man flying through the sky.
And he was flying far too leisurely.
“T-The lord! The lord has appeared!”
“Everyone, run!”
Though they had never met the young man before, they all knew the instant they saw him.
The lord of the marquisate had found their hideout.
So the men grabbed only light packs and scattered in every direction.
Since Jade was powerful enough to cause disasters like natural calamities, not one of them dared even consider fighting.
“W-We have to go too! We’ll die if we stay here!”
“Ugh!”
The middle-aged man hurried down from the watchtower, dragging Janghan, who was still frozen stiff.
Though Jade was flying toward them slowly, they could not afford to let their guard down.
Their opponent was a spirit caller who could roam the skies at will, so they had to flee as though their lives depended on it.
‘If we’re lucky, we can survive. There are a lot of us, so if we choose well—!’
Biting his lip, the middle-aged man descended the ladder like lightning.
But questions continued to plague his mind.
He could not understand how Jade had discovered in a single day a hideout that no one but their comrades knew about.
But the others seemed to have no time to think about it; they were simply scattering in every direction, terrified out of their wits.
“We have to hurry too—!”
Janghan’s words did not make it to the end.
A wall of earth suddenly surged up from the ground.
“Spirit arts! We just have to break through it!”
“Hraaah!”
At the middle-aged man’s words, Janghan’s body swelled for an instant.
His body had grown plump, but as he had said earlier, it had once been trained to its limits.
Thus, muscle still remained beneath the layer of fat, and Janghan unleashed the strength it provided.
Boom!
At the same time, a faint sword aura gathered along the blade, and chunks of earth flew everywhere.
A crack had formed in the earth wall.
But the crack made by the single strike was small and quickly filled in.
“Let’s do it together!”
“We have to move right after striking with our swords! It’s filling in faster than I expected!”
“One, two, three!”
Though they gave no further explanation, the two swung their swords together on the count of three.
They aimed for the same spot and thrust their swords in simultaneously.
But even though they sent out aura-infused sword strikes, the crack was not as large as they had expected.
It had barely opened wide enough for a single person to squeeze through.
“Guh!”
“Kheok!”
As a result, the two were knocked back without even making it halfway through the earth wall.
Even then, if they had not reflexively pulled themselves back, they would have ended up half-buried in the earth wall as it closed.
“D-Damn it!”
“If we can’t break through, we can at least climb over it—”
“That won’t work.”
Tap.
Faced with an attack that was blocked with absurd ease, the two chose another method.
They tried to climb over the earth wall.
But at the unfamiliar voice coming from the top of the earth wall, the two froze as if turned to ice.
Shudder, shudder!
They could not even raise their heads.
They instinctively knew whose voice it was without looking, so the two faced each other and swallowed hard.
‘W-We have to run!’
‘It’s already too late.’
Unlike the middle-aged man, who had not yet given up, Janghan’s eyes gradually lost their light.
He had already given up on living.
“Not a single one of you will escape.”
“W-We…!”
“Bandits. And ones who bear me a grudge, at that. Ah, should I say former apprentice knights?”
Clang.
The middle-aged man’s pupils widened as far as they possibly could.
From those words alone, he could tell that Jade knew everything.
That was why the middle-aged man let go of his sword without realizing it.
‘…It’s over.’
Janghan, standing beside him, closed his eyes.
Resistance did not even cross his mind.
He was filled with resentment toward Jade, but he was not ignorant of reality.
No matter how he attacked Jade, the result was obvious.
Thwock!
As if to prove it, Noes, standing beside Jade like an attendant, pierced both their hearts with Earth Spears.
He had dispatched the two men swiftly and without a sound.
-Good job, Noes!
-Now all that’s left is to clean things up.
Roooar!
Seeing Noes kill the two men, Whid slipped out of Jade’s arms and grew to an enormous size.
As if he wanted to lend a hand, he flew toward the bandits nearby.
Then he began spewing his breath without mercy.
“S-Save me!”
“Aaaagh!”
With Whid’s mana now deeper and more immense, his lightning breath had grown just as powerful, and the bandits collapsed helplessly before it.
Several tried to block Whid’s breath by raising sword aura, but their mediocre skill made it impossible.
They would have needed to be at least an Intermediate Expert to barely divert it, but unfortunately, no one here had that level of skill.
Bzzzt!
In the end, most of the bandits collapsed onto the ground, scorched black by the breath.
They had become corpses without managing to land a single effective blow.
Raaaar!
Whid let out a thunderous roar at the scene he had created.
It was because he could clearly tell that he had grown stronger.
“Then I’ll take care of the cleanup.”
-Our Whid has grown so much! His breath is much stronger, too!
Jade, who had been watching Whid hunt with his hands clasped behind his back, kicked off the ground.
Dozens of bandits had been slaughtered in an instant, but the leadership was still intact.
Sensing that through his aura, Jade moved toward the one who possessed the strongest presence.
Of course, he did not forget to deal with bandits hiding away along the way.
Thwack! Thwack!
Like a master from a martial-arts novel, Jade flicked his fingers and sent out blasts of wind.
The aura bullets then pierced the bandits’ foreheads with perfect accuracy.
“I’ll let you live for now. I have a use for you.”
“Gah!”
Even after seeing his subordinates die, the bandit chief, who had stayed hidden to the very end, let out a cry of shock.
It was because earth suddenly surged up and covered his entire body.
Like a full-body restraint, the earth covered everything but his face. The bandit chief instinctively raised his aura, but despite its ordinary appearance, the earth was hard.
It bound him firmly, as though refusing to allow even the slightest crack.
“S-Save me… Mmph!”
“Good job.”
Noes did not stop there and blocked his mouth as well.
He left only his nostrils uncovered so he could still breathe.
Pfffft!