Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Mercenaries and Wizards

The mercenaries came to their senses at his words and scrambled to their feet. They lifted up the injured, supported them, and picked up the weapons that had fallen.

One of the merchants leading the wagon train ran up to Russell, followed by the other merchants.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, we were able to defeat those monsters.”

“It’s nothing. What’s the damage?”

“There are some, but we can handle it. If it weren’t for you, we would have lost everything.”

At the merchant’s words, the other merchants nodded in agreement. Their eyes were filled with admiration and respect as they looked at Russell.

“See, if I hadn’t brought him, what would have happened? Donovan, you were a little suspicious of him. You said he was just a big kid.”

“Oh, come on, Brother Dominic. What are you talking about? It’s nothing, haha.”

Russell chuckled. Then, the young merchant who had first approached and greeted him looked up at the sky and said,

“We should prepare to camp here today.”

“Here? Are you sure?”

“Yes, well. We were planning to camp around here anyway. And uruks are ferocious. I think they can only be around here because there are no stronger monsters. At most, there might be goblins or something.”

‘I see.’ He had only been reincarnated in this world for 20 years. And these merchants had traveled this road dozens of times.

“Oh, and don’t worry about the spoils of war and compensation. We’ll make sure to calculate everything and give it to you.”

“I understand.”

“Hey, you guys! Hurry up and get those things out of there, or you’ll be eating with the wolves!”

Donovan shouted, and the wagon porters, who had been hiding, came out and began to clean up. They gathered the bodies of the dead uruks and threw them into the forest, and then piled up firewood and lit a campfire.

Some of them gathered the armor and weapons that the uruks had been wearing. They were all Russell’s spoils of war. He could later sell them to a blacksmith or to a merchant guild for a profit.

The mercenaries hung around Russell, but they didn’t dare approach him and speak to him first. It wasn’t just his exotic appearance and size, but also the fact that the way he had blown the uruks away with each blow was deeply etched in their minds like a brand.

Nevertheless, having a strong comrade was an incredibly reliable factor in a mission. Russell nodded to the mercenaries, who were thanking him with gestures and nods.

“Uncle, you’re amazing!”

Daphne suddenly appeared from somewhere and looked up at Russell with sparkling eyes.

“Can’t you tell just by looking?”

“I just thought you were a bearded old man.”

“Hey!”

When Russell made a fist, the child playfully covered her head with a squeal. Just then, her parents, thinking that the child was being scolded, rushed over and bowed their heads.

“I’m sorry, sir!”

“S, She’s just a child. Please forgive her just this once. . .”

“It’s fine. I’m not scolding her. Is she hurt anywhere?”

“Y, Yes. She’s fine. Thank you for saving her.”

“Thank you.”

The parents took Daphne and returned to the other group of travelers. Daphne, who was being dragged away reluctantly, looked back. Russell simply waved his hand.

It would be scary and burdensome for ordinary people to talk to a mercenary who wielded a sword. Especially if he was a man who could blow the heads off monsters with his bare hands.

Russell turned away with a grin and headed towards the campfire. Food was gradually being prepared.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

Three or four cauldrons and pots were placed over the campfires. As the skilled mercenaries tossed in the ingredients and boiled them, a delicious smell soon filled the air.

Russell, who had filled his bowl with his share of stew and jerky, found a suitable place to sit down when two people approached him. They were the blonde priestess and Evelyn.

The two who had approached Russell seemed to have become aware of each other when they got close. However, they did not turn around and leave.

Russell, who was chewing on his jerky, looked up at the two who were sitting diagonally across from him.

One was Evelyn, the wizard he had greeted inside the carriage, and the other was the priestess who had assisted the mercenaries in the battle.

She was slightly shorter than Evelyn, but her head was small and her proportions were good, so she didn’t look that much shorter. The priestess was wearing a white robe with a golden border.

The hood that could cover her head was folded back, and underneath the robe, a priest’s uniform and a breastplate that covered her chest could be seen. A short sword and a mace as long as her forearm were attached to the tough-looking belt. In many ways, she was as well-armed as the mercenaries.

“What’s the matter?”

When the priestess looked at Evelyn, she waved her hand as if to tell her to go first. The priestess nodded and greeted Russell.

“I am Elenora Lunes. I am humble, but I serve and worship the light.”

Up close, the priestess was a woman with a different kind of beauty than Evelyn. Her slightly drooping eyes gave off an air of melancholy, and a small dot was tattooed below her pink lips, which sat beneath a sharp nose, adding a touch of sensuality. Melancholy and sensuality. She was a beautiful woman with two conflicting charms.

“Russell.”

Elenora lifted her head, and her eyes were the color of a clear sky. Blonde hair and blue eyes. How typical.

She said,

“I came to thank you for protecting our group today.”

“Yeah.”

Russell replied haltingly, as if he had to finish some overdue homework.

“I was hired for the job. It was just what I was supposed to do.”

“If it weren’t for you, there would have been many more casualties. Or we might not have been able to win at all and would have had to run away.”

“Maybe.”

Russell shrugged. If he hadn’t been there, some of them might not have lived to see the next day’s sunlight. They might have fought and run away. He would lose credibility, but that wasn’t more precious than his life.

“What about you?”

“Yes?”

“Would you have run away? Or would you have fought to the end?”

Elenora met Russell’s gaze at his question.

“I think I would have run away.”

“A priestess?”

“My life is precious to me too.”

“That’s different from what I’ve heard. I’ve heard that devout priests don’t back down even in the face of danger.”

“Well, I didn’t die, so the light must have been watching over me. And my life is precious to me. I have dedicated the rest of my life to God, so I would like to meet my end in a place of my choosing.”

“You’re saying that this battle wasn’t fitting for such an end.”

“Fitting. . . If there was something for me to gain, I might have done so.”

“I see.”

‘I don’t know what this conversation is about.’ Russell chuckled softly and nodded, and Elenora smiled faintly.

“I will pray with gratitude. May the sun and the light’s blessings be with you, Russell, until the end of your journey.”

As Elenora prayed, a golden light flowed over her body, like before. The soft light, reminiscent of a golden wheat field, seeped into Russell’s entire body.

“. . .Hm.  Thank you.”

Russell felt a surge of energy in his body. He didn’t know how it worked. To his eyes, Elenora didn’t have any magic power in her body.

Nevertheless, a great deal of power poured out of her. It was as if power from another dimension was flowing in through her as a conduit. The sacred power flowed through Russell’s body and gathered in his left hand.

Russell felt the flow of power and raised his hand. A golden pattern appeared on the back of his hand, emitting a faint light before disappearing. What the heck is this?

When Russell looked at Elenora, she said,

“It will help you when you face evil someday. Well, that’s all.”

Elenora stood up from her seat after finishing her blessing. She seemed to be going to take care of the other injured people. There were quite a few people who had been injured, so why had she gone out of her way to find him and give him a blessing?

In the eyes of the priestess, who seemed so devout, Russell saw a small spark. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but it wasn’t simply filled with gratitude.

Evelyn, who had been sitting quietly eating the stew in her bowl, opened her mouth when Elenora left.

“She has quite a bit of sacred power. She’s one of the candidates to be the next saint.”

“A candidate for sainthood?”

Russell asked in response to Evelyn’s words.

“Yes. Elenora Lunes. She has a bit of a reputation. She mostly visits places, like remote villages, and heals the sick. I guess she chose this northeastern area this time.”

“By herself?”

Even if this world is a fantasy, it’s not a neighborhood overflowing with dreams and hope. Rather, it could be considered more dangerous in some ways.

“Well, she has enough sacred power to easily defeat any monsters or bandits. And she was carrying a mace just now. That thing is really heavy. And the church has a lot of influence. I don’t think anyone would mess with her if they had any sense.”

“There aren’t many people who live by thinking.”

“She must have been traveling around naively.”

Of course. Russell was just a newcomer to this world. The existence of a saint like the ones in novels or games was surprising. ‘Then are there devils somewhere too? If it’s something that will help me when I face evil, then there might be some somewhere.’

The conversation was briefly interrupted, and Russell chewed and swallowed his jerky. Evelyn began to fidget a little. Russell, who had been sucking on his fingers and licking off the salt from the jerky, said,

“If you have something to say, say it. If not, then don’t.”

“. . . Hey! You fought well. Are you a martial artist?”

“Yeah.”

Russell nodded calmly. His family was a military family, after all. Martial artists were like warriors. They were superhumans who fought by receiving mana and strengthening their bodies with magic power.

“Somehow, you’ve also learned martial arts.”

“A little when I was young. Just the basics.”

Evelyn made a dumbfounded expression at Russell’s answer. She remembered the scenes of Russell dodging the attacks of six or seven uruks and killing them with each blow.

There were no unnecessary movements in his actions, and they were all clean. The best possible actions he could take in that situation and with that posture. His punches were filled with power that could instantly end the lives of his opponents. She couldn’t believe that he had simply learned the basics.

“You learned that much from the basics? Wait a minute, when were you young? How old are you now?”

“Twenty.”

“. . . . . .”

Russell looked up at the sudden silence. Evelyn was staring at him with her mouth wide open.

“T, The same age as me? With that size and that face?”

“. . . Dammit, I should shave my beard.”

Evelyn muttered that she had thought he was three or four years older than her. Russell chuckled.

“Do I look that old?”

Evelyn shook her head. In fact, when she looked at him closely, he still had a youthful look about him. If he shaved his beard, he would probably look closer to his actual age.

“Your voice and the way you talk make you seem like you’re in your mid-twenties. . .”

“My way of talking. . .”

His father had also occasionally said that he sounded like he was talking to a friend his own age, not his son. It wasn’t a wrong statement, since his actual age, combining his previous life and this one, was similar to his father’s. He had gotten over it at the time, but Russell had thought that he should try to act more like his age.

Evelyn cleared her throat and said,

“Thank you for saving me just now. . . I would have been stuck and died if it weren’t for you. . .”

“Just speak casually.”

“Okay.”

“I saw your magic too.”

Creating a fireball with a spell and gestures. On Earth, they were things that only existed in movies, cartoons, and novels. It was a pleasure to see them with his own eyes.

Evelyn smiled slyly and asked. For some reason, there was a hint of bragging in her smile. It was kind of annoying.

“Is this your first time seeing magic?”

“This closes up. Where I lived, humans who could use magic were rare.”

“Hmm, hmm. Are you interested?”

“In you?”

“W, What?!”

Evelyn blushed and shouted.

“No or yes, why are you shouting?”

“You said magic, so why me?!”

“You have to make the subject clear.”

“There’s context, context!”

Russell laughed out loud and poked the campfire with a stick. She was a fun woman to tease.

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