Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 105

Chapter 105: Latham (1)

TL: Potato-tan

Proofreader: Asianpotato

 

Many had witnessed Russell’s prowess. At the very least, those who had escaped the goblins’ jaws of death and those who had prevailed in the battle with Tumelun were there.

 

He had charged through a horde of monsters brandishing two massive weapons, slaughtering them with ease. He had even forced the orc shaman, who had been spewing blue flames, to retreat.

 

Now they had safely arrived at the lodge, which meant that he must have killed the orc shaman who had attacked the lodge.

 

Many others, besides Lempard, were eyeing Russell and his group. Despite the destruction of the lodge’s palisade and numerous buildings by fire and ruin, the people’s faces remained devoid of any hint of despair.

 

Instead, they shone with curiosity about Russell. They were itching to approach and speak to him, but Russell’s unique aura—his noble appearance and strange eye color—and his group’s presence held them back.

 

It was somewhat unusual for someone like Lempard to approach and speak to him.

 

Russell moved with his group.

 

“Excuse me, where are you headed?”

 

“It’s already morning, so it wouldn’t make sense to go back to sleep. We should eat breakfast and then leave.”

 

“Perhaps you could join me at the tavern we were at yesterday? I’ll order the meal ahead of time.”

 

Russell agreed. Lempard nodded, shrugged off his armor, and walked toward the inn.

 

“I’ll visit the stable. Kai, pack our things and bring them down.”

 

“Yes.”

 

The inn they had stayed at was unharmed. The stable was the same. It was in better condition than they had expected.

 

The young boy in charge of the stables had soot and blood on his face and arms, but it was clear that the blood wasn’t his. He tended to the horses with enthusiasm.

 

The boy recognized Russell’s group and bowed. His bow was directed toward Calia.

 

“Welcome! I’ve looked after the horses as you instructed.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

When Russell saw Kry taken care of, he smiled.

 

Aellasis stroked the horse’s neck and mane, and the horse closed its eyes as if it were enjoying it. Russell watched and said,

 

“They are safe and sound. More than I thought.”

 

Calia, who was standing next to Russell, put her hand on her waist and said.

 

“I cast a spell to shield them from detection and sight before we left. The goblins would not have found them.”

 

There was a reason for the boy’s polite greeting.

 

Unfortunately, the only buildings spared were the inn and stable that Calia had blessed. The other buildings were unable to escape the monsters’ attack. The monsters had completely destroyed numerous inns, even if they had not collapsed.

 

There were also many collapsed stables, injured horses, and dead horses. The merchants would be deeply concerned because their carriage horses had died.

 

The fire had nearly blown off the inn’s roof, but Aellasis’s dramatic magic had somehow preserved its original shape. Despite the black charring on the eaves and one wall, the inn remained intact.

 

The interior was empty when they entered. There were only three or four customers sitting at the round tables. They might not have been able to clean up the mess outside yet, or they might have simply become ghosts.

 

“Welcome!”

 

A lively voice. As they turned their heads, the waitress from yesterday greeted them. They greeted her back and entered, and Lempard raised his hand from a corner seat.

 

“Over here.”

 

He had said that he would order their food first, but there was a generous meal on the table. The table seemed small once the four of them sat down.

 

After finishing their meal, Lempard, who was sipping the beer that the waitress had brought them, suddenly spoke up.

 

“Are you going to Latham Territory?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“If you’re going anyway, how about joining our caravan? We lost some swordsmen this time, so we have some empty seats.”

 

“What caravan?”

 

Lempard didn’t mind Russell’s informal speech.

 

Cuntenio, the caravan master, led the caravan. It’s quite large. This time, Latham territory has put up a bounty for monster subjugation and is recruiting mercenaries, so merchants are naturally gathering. Ah, there they are.”

 

Three footsteps echoed as the door opened and closed. Russell raised his head slightly and saw a middle-aged man dressed in flashy clothes and a hat, looking like a merchant. He had a stylish mustache under his nose. On either side of the merchant, there were two mercenaries with swords. They seemed to be bodyguards.

 

The mercenaries glanced briefly at Russell’s group and then looked straight ahead at nothing. They stood like trained soldiers rather than mercenaries.

 

“Greetings. I am Cuntenio. I shamelessly asked Lempard here to put in a good word for me.”

 

“I am Russell.”

 

After Russell’s group greeted him, Cuntenio got down to business.

 

“As you’ve heard, we’re also going to Latham territory. I hear that they’re even holding a hunting festival there.”

 

“A hunting festival?”

 

“Yes. It seems that monsters other than orcs appear one after another, causing headaches. At this rate, the monsters might completely block the roads and trade routes. They predict that if the delay persists, people will eventually stop coming here. They were also in the process of recruiting mercenaries at this lodge and sending them to the territory.”

 

Cuntenio sighed.

 

“Three days ago, we suffered unexpected casualties from cleaning up a small goblin village, and last night, goblins that had grown unusually large attacked the lodge. Surprisingly, there was an orc behind it. A magic-wielding one.”

 

“I still have trouble believing it, but everyone is talking about it, so I can’t help but believe it,” the merchant said, shaking his head.

 

“You are well-informed.”

 

“Merchants always keep their ears open to make money.”

 

Russell looked around at his group.

 

“What do you think?”

 

Kai shrugged casually.

 

“You are the leader. I will follow your decision.”

 

“I don’t mind either. Do we have to stand guard for long?”

 

“You’ve been sleeping a lot lately, Aella. Are you trying to grow taller?”

 

“Huh? Really?!”

 

Aella stood up abruptly, saying she wanted to check her height. But her opponent was Calia, who could alter her physical form at will. Aella, who had asked if she had grown taller, was soon buried in Calia’s chest, flailing her arms and legs.

 

Russell turned his head back toward Cuntenio.

 

“We’ll join you. How many days do you expect the journey to take?”

 

“. . . . . . Ah. It won’t take long. It’s not that far from the lodge. At most, three or four days.”

 

“What’s the advance payment?”

 

“Ten gold coins, assuming we reach the territory safely. I’ll give you five as a deposit.”

 

It was more than he had expected. Russell received ten gold coins for escorting a caravan for a mere three days. However, it would be extremely difficult to find a mercenary with skills like Russell’s. No, it would be close to impossible.

 

As Russell nodded, Cuntenio and Lempard’s faces brightened. Cuntenio took out the gold coins and handed them over on the spot.

 

“We’ll all leave once our mercenaries have finished their meals. It will probably be over in about an hour, so please meet us at the entrance to the lodge around that time.”

 

“Understood.”

 

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

 

The journey was relatively smooth. It would have been even smoother if there hadn’t been so many monster attacks.

 

“Ack!”

 

A mercenary screamed as he was lifted into the air. His armpits and back suddenly sprouted wings. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have been launched headfirst toward the sky and feet toward the ground.

 

The culprit, providing the mercenary with an aerial view, was a thick vine. The giant tree monster, composed of mud, branches, and the corpses of dead animals, owned that vine.

 

Grooooaaaaar-!

 

“Damn, what the hell is that?”

 

The mercenaries panicked at the tree giant’s roar. They hurriedly tried to shoot arrows, but they did not penetrate the monster’s intertwined branches.

 

“Aaagh! Don’t just stand there; do something, you bastards!”

 

A mercenary, his ankle entangled in a vine, flailed wildly on the tree giant’s face. Then, a white disc cut through the vine and embedded itself in the tree giant’s face.

 

The tree giant screamed, covering its face with its hands. It staggered backward, and the mercenary dropped to the ground.

 

“Ouch! My back. . .”

 

Everyone’s eyes turned in one direction, except for the mercenary who was holding his back. Russell was the one who had thrown the axe. Russell did not give the giant tree any room to breathe.

 

Cooowooo!

 

The tree giant, which had pulled out the axe, roared and shot vines from its body. They were faster than any arrow, but Russell dodged all the attacks by slightly shifting his body.

 

He wasn’t moving quickly. It was just a leisurely movement, as if he were taking a walk. But even so, the vines did not pierce or grab Russell.

 

The enraged tree giant roared and raised two large fists that resembled tree roots.

 

Rustle.

 

It lost both of its arms and collapsed to the ground.

 

When had he gotten his hands on it? The axe that had been lying on the ground was trembling in Russell’s hand, emitting cold air.

 

Russell’s magic power infused it, forming frost on the axe’s blade and doubling its size.

 

Swoosh!

 

The air screamed, tearing itself apart. No one saw Russell swing his axe. All they could guess was how many times the trail of countless white threads danced in the void for a brief moment.

 

Boom!

 

The tree giant, whose body was frozen, fell backwards. And then it shattered into countless pieces of ice, which turned into dust and scattered.

 

“What kind of monster is that?”

 

Lempard stood up and said,

 

“It looks like a swamp spirit.”

 

“A spirit?”

 

“I’ve heard that when human or animal corpses pile up in a swamp and decomposition continues, these things sometimes appear. People believe that the strange flow of forest magic gives birth to these uncommon creatures.

 

The forest’s magical power.

 

“Do spirits also attack people?”

 

“It’s rare for them to be friendly. It’s difficult to communicate with them unless they’re like elves.”

 

Indeed. It made him realize once again that it was a harsh world for the weak. As Russell put the axe back inside his coat, the mercenary who had been holding his back came up and bowed.

 

“T, Thank you.”

 

Russell simply nodded and returned to his seat. Kai and Aellasis were finishing up their cleanup in the rear of the caravan, where he had been.

 

For two days after leaving the lodge, it had been like that. The mercenaries in front handled some tasks, but when they couldn’t, Russell and his group took charge.

 

Had Cuntenio not permitted their joining, the caravan would have collapsed by now, and half of the mercenaries would have fled to protect their own lives. Of course, being scattered was a faster way to become monster food than sticking together.

 

On the third day, as they were leaving the forest, they came to a gentle meadow. As they climbed the meadow, they saw a vast plain and a city spread out below them.

 

In the distance, it was Latham territory, nestled between two mountain ranges.

 

They could see a large wall surrounding the settlement. Although its circumference was several kilometers, the wall separated the outside from the inside without a single gap.

 

Below the wall were iron spikes with sharp tips pointing upward to prevent monsters from rushing in, and on the watchtowers placed at fifty-meter intervals, soldiers with bows and arrows were scanning the fields, watching for monsters.

 

Various buildings lined up inside the sturdy wall, which looked old but did not necessarily mean it was dilapidated, had various buildings lined up inside it.

 

The buildings, which had been repeatedly expanded and renovated, were each built for their own purpose, and some even had annexes that no one but their owners could know the purpose of.

 

They could see a large castle of white stone in the innermost part. The castle boasted a spacious courtyard and a carefully constructed citadel. It appeared to be a lord’s castle.

 

“That’s Latham. The city nestled at the foot of Mount Rahamurn.”

 

Cuntenio said. Aellasis, sitting in front of Russell, shaded her eyes with her hand and observed below.

 

“Wow. It’s much bigger and taller than last time.”

 

“Indeed.”

 

Russell agreed. The territory itself was smaller than Errandis. However, the wall’s size exceeded Errandis’s due to its construction in the midst of a mountain range teeming with monsters.

 

“It must have been quite a project.”

 

Kai added.

 

“It seems like they had to put in that much effort to keep out uninvited guests.”

 

Calia tapped her lips.

 

“I wonder how many corpses are supporting that wall.”

 

The caravan slowly descended the meadow’s gentle slope. The wind rustled the lush grass beside the road.

 

As they walked along the road, the appearance of the territory gradually increased. As they approached the nearby fields, farmers who were catching bugs and pulling weeds looked at the caravan.

 

The carts used by the farmers, as well as the cows and horses pulling them, moved aside and waited for the caravan to pass. In addition to the caravan, there were many people heading for the only gate.

 

Carriages creaked and rattled, and there was a lively chatter coming from somewhere.

 

Mercenaries, other peddlers, and porters crowded around the gate. The gate was not small, but the guards were checking each one individually, which was causing a significant delay. Cuntenio muttered.

 

“The inspection is more thorough than I thought.”

 

It was not until the sun, which had been floating in the sky, was about to set that they were able to meet with the guards.

 

Latham’s soldiers seemed to be quite disciplined. They wore quilted armor, iron helmets, attached sword hilts and long swords, and held axes and spears in their hands.

 

“Wait. May I see what’s inside?”

 

“Certainly.”

 

Cuntenio took the lead and showed the guards what was inside the wagon. The wagon and the mercenaries slowly passed through the gate. And it was Russell’s turn.

 

“Halt.”

 

Russell looked away from the axe spear, which was diagonally in front of him.

 

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