Chapter 49
At the time of Bigfoot’s death.
The one who felt the most regret was none other than Gorhan.
“To think Bigfoot would be hunted down.”
The absurdly tough leg hide of Bigfoot, harder than steel yet flexible at the same time.
He had wanted to compare his own durability against that hide.
It would have been nice if he could have at least gotten the hide.
Hearing that the entire hide had been taken to the Imperial Center, it was truly a shame.
And so, while Gorhan was soothing his regrets and making a name for himself on the Northern Front.
“Uraaaaaaah!!!”
One day, when his momentum was exceptionally good.
Gorhan left the front lines and ventured deeper into the den of the Demonic Beasts.
Most of the situation had been cleared up, and no one was injured.
He just wanted to go deeper alone and release all his remaining strength.
How far had he gone straight past the front lines like that?
“…Who are you.”
“I am Mirne, hello.”
“How are you here? Even if this isn’t the Empire’s land, how can a woman be alone in this rugged terrain.”
Gorhan had met a peculiar woman.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but she was a woman who exuded a strange charm.
She wasn’t exactly his dream ideal type.
But she had an Aura that naturally drew his gaze and made him curious about her interests.
This sensation that was strangely mysterious, yet tickled his heart.
“Are you a witch.”
Clumsy with emotions, Gorhan swung the axe in his hand the moment he sensed something off.
“Black Mane Slash!”
Slash!
Looking at her clothes, she seemed like a daughter from some Noble Family.
For such a woman to appear in this terrain, so rugged that even Demonic Beasts rarely came here?
He could only conclude that it was some bizarre Sorcery.
“Wait! Wait! Please calm down!”
Mirne urgently tried to clear up what seemed to be a misunderstanding, but.
“Shout the skill name with vigor! Black Mane Rend!”
Gorhan swung his axe recklessly.
If he had simply swung from top to bottom earlier.
This time, he swung the axe so fast it felt like it was cutting multiple places at once.
Slaaash!
The aftermath of Gorhan swinging his axe made it feel as if the blizzard had stopped for a moment.
The few Demonic Beasts around felt the threat to their lives the moment they sensed Gorhan’s momentum and fled.
“Right, normally if I swing this much, you’d either die… or raise your momentum, one of the two.”
And in that situation.
“How can you be so perfectly fine?”
Mirne was perfectly fine.
Even though the surroundings had been completely hacked and slashed by the axe.
She remained in the exact same state as before, seemingly unaffected even by the cold of the Northern Region.
A posture as if she had just come out for a stroll.
Seeing that sight.
“I definitely need the strength to kill you!”
The moment Gorhan tried to boil up his strength.
“No, I’m Mirne! The Crown Princess of the Maselin Kingdom! Mirne!”
“I don’t need to know that.”
Mirne urgently opened her mouth and calmed Gorhan down.
“I’ll be blunt, I came to meet you. Before I return to the Kingdom.”
“Before you return to the Kingdom?”
“I have memories in the Northern Region, you see, but because of the Demonic Beasts…”
“I understand.”
Gorhan immediately replied to Mirne’s continued words.
Originally, Demonic Beasts did not exist in the Northern Region.
Of course, that was a very old story.
The Northern Tribes desperately wished for that day to come again.
You could call it the dream of all the Tribes.
“If it’s you, you might be able to return the Northern Region… to those days when there were no Demonic Beasts.”
“Me? No, why should I even trust you in the first place? Do you not realize that even having a conversation with you right now makes no sense?”
“If that’s your doubt, I am receiving the Spirit’s Blessing. Does that answer it?”
“It is difficult for Spirits to operate in the Northern Region. The cold wind imbued with demonic energy is fatal to Spirits. Because of this, even our Tribe’s Shamans have a lot of difficulty when performing their arts. So how can you?”
Saying she could achieve such a dream, Gorhan’s level of suspicion rose endlessly.
Mirne, with a look of having no other choice, manifested the form of the Spirit she had finally contracted with.
The bitter cold.
The common sense that it was considered impossible to manifest a Spirit through this cold in the Northern Region.
“Amazing!”
As it was vainly shattered right before his eyes, Gorhan’s mouth dropped wide open.
“Do you believe me with this?”
“I believe you. I don’t completely trust you, but I believe that you are strong.”
“…You don’t believe my words?”
“I can see you’re an incredible Spirit Master, so what is your goal? Did you come to recruit me?”
But that was that, and this was this.
Gorhan’s thought process was incredibly simple, yet thoroughly compartmentalized.
Of course, he would keep listening since it was a pretty woman talking.
But it was hard to completely erase the thought that she was a wicked witch.
“No, I just came so we could get along. As close friends!”
“Close friends?”
“Yes, please take this.”
While he was having those thoughts.
A white hand rested on top of Gorhan’s rough hand, and then simply dropped something onto it.
“What is this?”
“It’s a tool that lets us contact each other, an Artifact! That one is a new masterpiece I made this time. Though I did receive a lot of help.”
“And?”
“It means let’s contact each other occasionally with this, like comrades with the goal of completely wiping out the Demonic Beasts in the Northern Region.”
“How funny.”
“I’m glad if it made you smile.”
With that conversation as the end.
Whoooosh.
A fierce blizzard that obscured his vision suddenly blew between Mirne and Gorhan.
And amidst that fierce blizzard.
“…Was there ever such a warm hand, and such a smile.”
Unable to forget that brief moment of contact, Gorhan stared blankly ahead.
Naturally, Mirne had disappeared.
+++++
“So you received the Artifact and returned to the Northern Region, and you haven’t contacted her since?”
“Right! That’s right! I don’t know who you are, but you’re smart!”
CRASH!
One question and answer.
One clash.
And every time that clash continued, the surrounding terrain changed.
The first start was the New Residential Area.
But with every question and answer, the two men’s positions were changing by the minute.
By now, they had arrived at Greatjaw’s Territory, one of the habitats of the Great Demonic Beasts.
A location far beyond the front lines.
The Crown Prince, Bellon, loosened his shoulder muscles and looked around.
“We’ve come far.”
“More! Let’s do more! More!”
At Gorhan’s subsequent words, Bellon turned his gaze back toward him.
[He certainly has a clearly defined character.]
The Northern Great Warrior, Gorhan, felt like the typical cliché of a slightly dim-witted but pure Barbarian.
Intuitive, loves to fight, but occasionally spits out words imbued with wisdom - that kind of character.
“I have no idea who you are, but I’ve never seen a Human as strong as you!”
“Mirne and I, who looks stronger?”
“I couldn’t tell with Mirne. She is a woman with a profound charm that I truly couldn’t fathom. But you… I can tell with absolute certainty. You are a distant Sun.”
Though right now, he just looked like a Warrior who loved to fight.
“So you haven’t contacted her, but you have the Artifact.”
“That’s the same question! But since we did one question and ans - Gah!”
KABOOOM!
Once again, Gorhan’s body flew away as lightly as a sheet of paper.
Counting this time, it was already around twenty times.
Let alone reacting, he was smashed into a wall without even knowing when he had been hit.
“What in the world is…”
As Gorhan raised his head toward the direction where Bellon should be with an incomprehensible expression.
Bellon slowly appeared in front of Gorhan with a contemplative look.
“You said she knew a way to drive away the Demonic Beasts of the Northern Region.”
“Th-that’s right.”
Another question and answer followed.
CRASH!
The moment Gorhan’s answer ended, his body went flying again.
It looked like he was hitting him randomly, but he had been aiming precisely for the heart since earlier.
Whether he struck with his hands or feet, every single blow continuously landed on his heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
At first, he had taken the hits without thinking much of it.
But if this level of damage continued.
[It’s dangerous.]
Could I die? For the first time in his life, that thought was born in Gorhan’s mind.
His heartbeat was not the same as before.
Smack, thud, rollll.
His body skipped across the snowfield like a skipping stone.
Smack!
And the place he arrived at was.
Grrrrrrr.
“…Greatjaw?”
It was a Drake with a grotesquely large, protruding jaw.
A descendant of dragons that had lost its past glory.
There should originally be nothing where its degenerated wings used to be.
But unbefitting the name of a Great Demonic Beast, Greatjaw had unsightly wings attached to it.
However, knowing that it had risen to the position of a Great Demonic Beast with those wings and that monstrous jaw.
Looking up at it, Gorhan’s breath caught in his throat.
His condition was already bad enough, and now he had provoked a Great Demonic Beast first.
It would be a different story if he had at least brought his weapon or was fully armed.
Facing a Great Demonic Beast right now was impossible.
“Hahaha! But isn’t overcoming even such impossibilities the path of a Great Warrior!”
Even so, facing it proudly.
Considering this a virtue, Gorhan raised his body and prepared to face the Great Demonic Beast.
Right at that moment.
Fwoooosh.
A crimson flame compressed to the extreme flew over.
Slice.
And completely blew away the upper part of the Drake’s jaw.
Without even knowing when it died, Greatjaw, known as the terror of the Northern Region, met its end just like that.
“With this, I’ve caught two Great Demonic Beasts. From what I hear, Gorhan, you said your goal is to be a Great Warrior.”
“Th-that is correct.”
And at Bellon’s subsequent words, Gorhan unconsciously spat out honorifics.
At the same time, he realized.
Just how much his opponent had been holding back against him all this time,
And the reason why he was still alive even after taking dozens of attacks.
“M-may I ask who you… are.”
The words wouldn’t come out properly.
Just how rudely had he acted toward this strong person?
It wouldn’t be strange if he died.
While complex thoughts were surfacing in Gorhan’s mind.
“Seeing your attitude, I won’t bother saying it. As long as you maintain your current attitude, no problems will arise.”
“Th-thank you.”
Bellon continued speaking with a calm expression.
“You said she gave you a new Artifact, for communication.”
“That is correct.”
“And she said she wanted to get along.”
“That is right.”
Every time a question and answer followed, Gorhan’s body flinched.
Thud!
At the same time, Greatjaw’s massive body finally lost its balance and collapsed to the Ground.
A Great Demonic Beast so massive that, just by its height alone, a person would have a hard time seeing its face even if they tilted their head up at a right angle.
The moment that Demonic Beast collapsed powerlessly to the Ground, a massive blizzard blew.
Fwoooosh.
And amidst that blizzard.
A single fire that melted everything rejected the blizzard’s intrusion.
“From now on, report to me whenever anything happens, and do not reply to her hastily.”
“…Wh-what does that.”
“It means you are going to get along with that woman named Mirne my way.”
While the flames pushed away the blizzard.
Bellon smiled deeply and looked down at Gorhan, who was sprawled on the Ground.
“Since she’s only thinking about using you, she probably wouldn’t even dream that she’s the one being used.”
Mirne, the Male Lead you’re trying to capture this time will be a little different.