Chapter 123
[The fragments of the fallen kingdom have been recalled. Temporarily summoning Cavalry Commander ‘Bradamante’.]
There had definitely been a ripping sound.
The space, the monster, or maybe even my eardrum.
ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ ㅡ !!!!!!!!!!!!
After a roar too loud to describe swept past once, a second shockwave I could feel through both my ears and body washed over me.
ㅡBOOOOM!!!!
“Ungyaaak.”
ㅡSwish..!
If Ophelia hadn’t stretched out her threads to catch me, I might have been blown off somewhere and gotten lost.
“Are you all right, Princess?”
“O-Ophelia..!”
“What was that just now?!”
“Something else appeared..!!”
A streak had cut straight across one side of the battlefield. It had moved so fast that the ground rippled like waves, and the shock spread out perpendicular to the scar in the earth.
The monsters were sent tumbling by the shockwave, and for a brief, eerie moment, far off in the distance...
A voice that was somehow familiar, yet one I was hearing for the first time.
“Ah..! I came too far..!”
“W-Who are you! Another hunter from outside?!”
ㅡKiiit….
A blue-haired female knight was sprinting toward us at incredible speed from the forest that had been torn open. Several hunters near the sealing stone barrier, who were in the middle of the brief lull, went on guard when they saw her, but she paid them no mind and raced this way while glancing around rapidly.
“Bradamante!! It’s been so long!!”
“Sir Galahad..?! Are we meeting again?!”
ㅡClick!!
“You are..? No, why do you look like that..?”
ㅡClick click!!
“Well, if the person herself is satisfied….”
After spotting Grandpa Galahad and Minyum, she turned her head toward us.
“B-Bradamante..?”
“Princess..?”
As if something impossible had happened, she opened her eyes very wide and strode quickly toward me.
“Princess!!”
“Hyeet..!”
She suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace, then started patting my head and cheeks and everywhere else all at once.
“What do we do! Princess! You’re so cute!!”
“W-Whaaa….”
ㅡClick!! Click click!!
“M-Minyum….”
Behind us, Minyum was absolutely furious at the sight. After Bradamante let go of me, she knelt on one knee politely in front of me and lowered her head.
“Cavalry Commander Bradamante! I have answered the Princess’s summons!”
“A-ah, um…. W-welcome! It’s really super urgent right now, okay?! So with that over there, you need to do this and that and leave it waaaay over there for us!”
“So that’s the situation..!”
“C-Can we really do it..?”
In the meantime, Suri approached, nudging the sealing stone with its foot as it came closer, and moved to Bradamante’s side.
And then it rubbed the top of its head against Bradamante’s cheek. Bradamante stood up and slowly reached out to Suri, then began vigorously petting Suri’s stiff little beak.
“...So you’ve been well.”
ㅡKiiit….
“Huh..?”
But then? Suri, in a super-obedient puppy-dog mode I’d never seen before—not that kind of dog—closed its eyes and quietly accepted Bradamante’s touch.
“S-Suri..?”
Could it be Suri had only ever been prickly with me..?! Come to think of it, I don’t remember ever seeing it get angry at Grandpa Galahad or Ophelia or Minyum or Dangdang..!!
“No way..! Suri hated me after all!!”
“Princess. Suri was, by nature, the one who shared the deepest bond with Bradamante.”
“Ah, uh, um…. Hm?”
Wait. Then Bradamante was the cavalry commander, but she had no horse and had the strongest bond with Suri, which meant….
“Was Suri Bradamante’s mount..?”
“It’s not actually a horse, but yes. Bradamante was the only Hippogriff rider in the Griffin Corps, the royal cavalry’s finest unit.”
“Eeeeh..!!”
I had no idea. That meant Suri had been fighting all this time by itself, with no original master. I’d done something terrible to Suri, and even being so prickly and sensitive was because it had no owner….
“....”
How long had it been since they’d last met? I watched from a distance as Suri and Bradamante shared their bond. It had come into the world, its body shrunk down, with no master and only some idiot princess who kept causing trouble every day.
“Uwaa…. I’m sorry, Suri….”
My nose stung as if I were about to cry. I really did shed a few tears.
ㅡKiiit
“Hmm..?”
Maybe sensing how I felt, Suri finished bonding with Bradamante, then turned around and slowly approached me.
“S-Suri..?”
ㅡKiiit
As if telling me to try petting it once, Suri shut its eyes and thrust the top of its head toward me.
I slowly reached out and stroked Suri’s head. The soft, fluffy little crown of feathers and down.
“Are you okay, Suri..?”
ㅡKiiit
“R-really..?”
Suri slowly nodded, then picked up the sealing stone lying on the ground in its beak.
By now, the monsters that had been momentarily stunned by the shockwave right after Bradamante’s summon were swarming back in. The monsters that had been swept away across a wide area were being replaced by more monsters coming in from farther out.
“Princess! I’ll definitely complete the mission!!”
“A-are you sure?! There are seriously way too many monsters over there..!”
“It’s fine! As long as I have the Princess cheering for me!”
ㅡFlap!
Bradamante kicked off the ground and leapt up, then mounted Suri with ease as if she did it every day. I, on the other hand, couldn’t get up there unless Suri sat down first.
Suri tossed the sealing stone it had been holding in its beak back to Bradamante, then started fiercely raking the ground with its front claws as if it were about to go all out.
“Princess, please give her a word of encouragement.”
“Ah..! Right!”
I took a deep breath for a moment, then said to Bradamante, who was riding on Suri’s back.
“Bradamante! Please do your absolute best and complete the mission!!”
“Understood, Princess!”
Bradamante tucked the long lance under her arm, nodded along with my words, and shifted her gaze forward. Their destination was the barrier device with yet another pillar of light shooting up from it.
“Go, Suri! Charge ahead ㅡ !!”
ㅡKiiit!!
Mana was sucked up in huge clumps in an instant. Bradamante, brimming with fierce energy, and Suri, with blue light blazing in its eyes, charged ahead so fast they unleashed a tremendous shockwave in the blink of an eye.
ㅡKWAAAANG!!!!
“Uwaaa…. My head feels dizzy….”
I must have used too much mana. My head felt foggy.
From far away, Bradamante’s charge looked like a gigantic blue spear shooting from the ground into the sky.
The wyverns flying around nearby flailed about like flies caught in the wind from a fan, and those that tried to get close had their wings torn apart and crashed to the ground.
“Damn..! The monsters are coming in!”
“But there aren’t many of them!”
The sealing stone was basically a monster-aggro magnet, so with Bradamante carrying it off, the number swarming this way had dropped somewhat.
“Chaerin unnie! What do we do now?!”
“Given the situation, once the barrier activates, the monsters will retreat! We have to hold out until then!”
“O-okay!”
“Then it’s my turn to shine!”
Grandpa Galahad slammed his shield down onto the ground with a thud, then shouted at me.
“Princess! Will you lend this old man your strength too!”
“U-uaaah! Grandpa, fighting!! Grandpa, you’re insanely strong!!!”
“Kuhahaha!! Excellent ㅡ !! I’m overflowing with power ㅡ !!!”
Grandpa Galahad planted the bottom edge of his shield into the ground, then held the top with one hand to keep it from toppling over and swung the flail in his right hand with all his might.
“Hooohp..!”
ㅡKAAANG!!
The shield and flail crashed together with a thunderous metallic shriek. After taking a deep breath, Grandpa Galahad unleashed an enormous roar I had never heard before.
“You lot ㅡ !!!! Don’t run away, fight back ㅡ !!!!!”
“Ugh..!”
“Ghk, what a tremendous roar..!”
“I can’t move..!”
A roar loud enough to make even the other hunters feel it in their bones. At the same time as the old man’s shout, blue waves of mana burst out and churned around us in spherical ripples; the ones caught in them wobbled dazedly for a moment, then charged at Grandpa Galahad.
“That is.... a taunt skill..?”
“Huh?!”
Come to think of it, I felt like I’d seen it once before somewhere. When Grandpa Galahad was first made, maybe? He had been summoned amid a wave of blue mana from the moment he appeared.
And then... the ridiculously expensive combat machine from Oseong Group’s research base and Sister Baek Su-ah’s golem suddenly went berserk and rushed at Grandpa Galahad....
‘No! Then it was Grandpa’s fault!!!’
Come to think of it, back then Chaerin unnie had said something about some kind of mental resistance suddenly activating, and the people at the lab were all acting weird and stuff.... Then, ah.
‘Let’s just pretend I don’t know about that. If I had to pay for that expensive thing, my allowance might be reduced to fifty thousand won a month..!’
Besides, if I carry here, then I’m saving everyone from the Nova Guild, right? That’s enough.
“Grandpa, do your best!!! Minyum, you too!! Dangdang and Ophelia, goooo ㅡ !!!”
The monsters that had been caught in the wide-area taunt skill all rushed at Grandpa Galahad at once. Since Chaerin unnie was nearby and thorn vines were walling things off around us, this side was fine, but there were way too many monsters on Grandpa’s side.
“Kuhahaha ㅡ !!! It’s boiling over ㅡ !!!!”
But Grandpa didn’t care about that at all. He just spun around with the flail and shield, and the monsters were smashed apart like they’d been run through a blender.
“Oh my gosh..! So powerful..!”
The other hunters were also easily dealing with the comparatively smaller number of monsters, fighting hard even as their fatigue piled up. After getting mana, Minyum and Dangdang were practically flying.
Did we manage to endure the last-ditch pattern for about five minutes like that?
ㅡFlash!!!!
Far away, the pillar of light flashed furiously before being cut off from the bottom up and disappearing completely.
“Did the barrier activate..!”
“Looks like it did!”
And then a wave of yellow light spread out from the pillar where the barrier had been.
“Hey, hey! Look at that! Those damn monsters are all disappearing!”
“It really is! This is it!”
“Princess, you did it.”
“Yay!! We won!!!”
I was so happy that I jumped up and down holding hands with Ophelia.
Only I was jumping, that is.
ㅡSaaaa….
The monsters, upon touching the wave of yellow light, crumbled away like powder. I was going to smash them all to pieces anyway, you know? Honestly, if I’d really gone all out, I could’ve flattened them all even if the barrier hadn’t activated—I just did what the status window told me to do.
“Sob, sob, that was so hard….”
Does it sound like I’m joking?
“Eve..! You worked so hard! It’s all thanks to you..!”
“Ch-Chaerin unnie..!”
“Whoa... kid, you’re really something.”
“You’ve come back from the brink of death! Give me hazard pay, seriously!”
The veteran hunters, watching the monsters scatter as black dust, finally straightened their backs. The sky, which had been covered in clouds, had cleared to a brilliant blue sparkle.
“Let’s go back to where the forensics team is!”
“Hah, that damn Ju Jeong-hye bitch was holed up in the watch post, taking it easy.”
“Old man, you really worked hard too! Man, I swear, you’re the first person this spry I’ve ever met besides my dad!”
“Kuhahahat!! What a fun battle!!!”
Everyone tossed their weapons to the ground, thinking back on the battle they’d just fought, and shook out their numb hands.
“W-wait a second! Bradamante is still..!”
“Huh? Ah, right, that friend who took the sealing stone just now….”
As soon as the words were out, Bradamante and Suri thumped down from the sky, their entire bodies splattered in blood.
“Princess! Mission accomplished!”
“Bradamante!! You’re seriously the best!!”
ㅡKiiit….
“Suri, you did great too!!! Suri is the best!!!”
As Suri flapped its wings and spun its head around, blood splattered everywhere. This was basically a horror movie.
“Thank you, Princess! Let me give you a hug once!!”
“Hold on. Bradamante, you’re soaked in monster blood.”
“Ugh…. Miss Ophelia….”
Bradamante, who had been about to pull me into her arms, was stopped by Ophelia because she was covered in too much blood. But stopping her for that reason is too much.
“I’m fine, Ophelia.”
“Eeeek..!! Princess..!!”
“...If the Princess says she’s fine, then I have no choice.”
Bradamante had worked so hard. This is the kind of thing you need to be able to do to count as a princess.
“Eeeeh….”
“Princess?!”
“Princess! Are you all right!”
“Princess!! Don’t die before this old man does!!! Kuaaaak!!!”
ㅡClack clack!!!
“No, I’m not dying…. I’m just a little dizzy….”
I guess I used too much mana. My head was spinning, my vision was woozy, and my strength gave out for a moment, so I collapsed onto the grass.
“Hehe…. I’m fine. Here, Bradamante.”
“Shall we hug once?”
[The battlefield morale has been boosted. The rank of the Helpless Princess has increased. Helpless Princess: C+ -> B]