Chapter 209: Brilliantly Dazzlingly (3)
「Warrior, Mute.
There were a lot of truly mute people in Great Wall. It was only natural, with so many who lived difficult lives and so many who were chased away.
However, the warrior called ‘Mute’ could actually hear and speak well.
“Enemy!”
It’s just that, the only things he said were.
“Danger!”
Only when protecting his fellow warriors from the monsters that appeared during battle. He was just called Mute because he was so damn quiet.
But no one hated the warrior, Mute.
This was because he always fought bravely on the front lines and would risk his life to protect his fellow warriors.
“Hey, Mute.”
“…….”
As Lord East, Mute was always a sore thumb to Cain, who had to take care of the long-term survivors.
“Why don’t you just let it all out once and for all?”
“…….”
Even when other warriors hesitantly talked about their past, Mute never opened his mouth.
Cain couldn’t bring himself to push him any further, as if he was afraid of the disaster that his own mouth would bring.
He just gulped down his cold, flat beer.
As they were silently taking care of each other.
“Lord East!”
Great Wall couldn’t always stop the monsters. However, since it was located at a certain distance from the human world, even if they missed a few, they could quickly chase after them and kill them, or contact the army inside in advance.
“We have a breach!”
But that day was different.
Unlike the monsters that had weakened after Johnny-Walker went out to fight their Demon King, that day they came in strong and in droves.
It felt like a wave was coming in after a long time.
The hearts of the warriors, who had become lax, began to race like a blast furnace, and they barely managed to block them by fighting haphazardly, but.
It seems like they broke through somewhere.
“Any casualties?”
“Fortunately, no. It seems there was a gap in the Great Wall. It seems the monsters went out first before we could even get to them.”
“……Damn it. We should have figured that out beforehand.”
The Great Wall, created by Karen Myer’s miracle, was perfect.
No, it was perfect.
As time passed, weak spots appeared here and there, and the warriors built their defenses around those gaps.
In the meantime, it seems that monsters entered through a gap that the warriors missed.
“Did you contact the Empire?”
“Not yet. Communication interference came along with this wave.”
Cain rose from his seat.
Every time his feet touched the ground, the monsters’ bodily fluids clung to him with a thud, but he had to move.
With ‘Winter’ strapped firmly to his back, he asked his subordinate.
“Which direction?”
“Near Fortress South 16.”
Cain reflexively asked back.
“Mute?”
The person in charge of Fortress South 16 was the warrior, Mute. And Mute was also the first to run when something like this happened.
The subordinate replied with a bitter expression.
“He probably ran straight out. When this happens, that Mute guy goes crazy.”
Bzzzt—
Brilliant lightning bolts surged from Cain’s entire body. He gathered all his strength and bent his legs.
Bang—!
In an instant, he began to dash through the black trails that fell between his eyes.
That direction was south.
‘Where is it.’
Cain looked around as he ran. Fortunately or unfortunately, inside the Great Wall lay the wide and flat Reminiscence grasslands, so there was something visible from afar.
Borrowing the power of ‘Winter’ and running across the grasslands, something flickered in Cain’s purple eyes in the distance.
‘Slash-and-burn village……?’
Those who found it difficult to live under the pressure of the lords would leave their territories or countries and live by roughly cutting down the mountains.
They would set fires to create fields in order to survive.
Slash-and-burn villages were created in this way, and as he reached the middle of the grasslands, he saw one such small village.
The place where those who had fled for their lives had settled seemed too dangerous.
In front of them.
Monsters were visible.
Clang—!
Cain accelerated once more and dashed forward, immediately creating a trail of blood with the green-skinned monsters lying dead in a mess.
And lastly.
Fwooosh—
It was Mute.
The guy was fighting with his eyes stained red with blood and his left arm, which seemed to have been bitten off by a monster below the elbow, with his shield forcibly tied on top.
“Mute—!”
Cain immediately drew ‘Winter’.
There were about thirty of them that crossed the Great Wall, and only four survived.
Dark Sky.
Original Style.
Kyrie.
The moonlight of the end created by the greatsword, ‘Winter’, was huge and dazzling.
It split the four monsters in half at once.
Thud.
Cain stood in front of the warrior, Mute.
“Lord…… East.”
Thud.
The guy dropped the mace he was holding and knelt down. He had already lost more blood than he could afford.
He couldn’t survive.
With his blurry vision, he looked back at the slash-and-burn village behind him and asked Cain.
“This time…… Did we protect them?”
Squeeze.
The hand that let go of the mace grabbed Cain’s forearm.
Cain looked back.
From a distance, it was definitely a slash-and-burn village. But up close, the houses were all half-collapsed, and it was a deserted village with no sign of human life.
Mute, who was busy fighting, must not have noticed that fact.
Cain closed his eyes tightly for a moment and opened them again, then answered.
“Yes.”
“Ahh…….”
“They all seem scared of us. They’re hiding behind their houses, watching us.”
As if soothing a child.
As if untangling a knot of resentment, Cain spoke slowly and clearly.
Even as his senses faded, Mute smiled as he listened to Cain’s words.
It was the first time he had ever seen Mute smile.
“Brother…… Father, Mother. Now I have the face to see you…… Your bedwetter is going now.”
Thud.
The hand he was holding fell away.
“Get up, get a hold of yourself!”
Cain shook his body.
But Mute didn’t budge. Only the smile on his lips remained the same.」
🔹🔹🔹
“My brother is a nag. What’s so great about being born just three years earlier.”
Allen was surprisingly talkative.
On the outside, he was the spitting image of an old noble family’s good-for-nothing, but once he learned of Cain and Elena’s identities, he began to treat them comfortably.
“I told him I was going on a gourmet tour of Mytilene, and he nagged me so much about being careful, not picking fights, and not getting into trouble, it’s like he was trying to glue my ears shut.”
“…….”
Cain stared at Allen Enges.
The more he looked at him, the more he resembled ‘Mute’.
He could change his appearance as he lived, but his gait, the rhythm of his breathing, and even the subtle southern Empire accent at the end of his words were all the same.
[‘Winter’ says that he’s too different from him.]
To think that the guy who was so silent that he was nicknamed ‘Mute’ would be such a foolish chatterbox.
“And Mother too! If she just told me to buy her a pretty necklace, I would’ve known what to get. But she told me to buy a specific brand, under a certain number of gold, so annoying.”
“Is that so.”
Elena responded without losing her smile.
Allen, seeing that a beauty like an empress was listening to him, continued to talk even more excitedly.
“So—”
“That’s enough.”
“But I’m just getting started?”
Cain gestured as if he were zipping his mouth shut.
“Yeah, so shut up.”
“…….”
Allen’s shoulders slumped. He looked at Elena with a look that said, ‘Maybe she’ll listen’, but she shook her head firmly.
Allen didn’t realize that Elena wouldn’t have even responded if Cain wasn’t next to him.
“I get it.”
“What do you mean? If you have any questions, feel free to ask—”
Cain shut Allen’s mouth with his hand.
At that moment.
[Destiny’s Crossroads has been discovered.]
[Fixation will change depending on your choice.]
As if to say that what Cain had just thought was the right answer, a message appeared.
Thinking that the transcendental something called a message appeared appropriately at times like this, Cain opened his mouth.
“What are you going to do now? All the guys who were protecting you are dead.”
“……But I came all this way, shouldn’t I look around some more?”
“Alone?”
Allen thought for a moment.
Indeed, as Cain said, it was scary to wander around this Mytilene auction house alone.
“I could hire a mercenary…….”
“Do you have money?”
“Of course I have money! I’m the second son of Baron Enges! Who wouldn’t lend me money if I asked!”
Of course…… They’d lend it to him easily.
They were a family that owned iron mines, and their rank wasn’t that high, so they seemed like a very appropriate target for the merchants.
So, of course, they would do their best to lend money to the good-for-nothing second son and let the family bear the burden.
“So, you’re saying you’ll borrow money using your family name, and then use that money to hire a mercenary to go around the Mytilene auction house?”
Allen’s eyes sparkled as if he was impressed by how clever he was.
“Yes! Isn’t it a perfect plan? Or I could hire a proper A-rank mercenary and get revenge on that bastard, Tucker.”
“Haa.”
A deep sigh could be heard from beside him. It was a sound that even Elena could hear.
Cain raised his fist.
Thwack.
“Ouch!” Allen cried out, holding the spot where Cain’s fist had landed with both hands.
“When will you ever grow up…….”
Cain knew Allen’s future.
He would probably suffer terribly at the hands of Tucker here in Mytilene. After that, Baron Enges wouldn’t be able to stand by idly.
Naturally, they would challenge Spencer Company to a duel, and having planned everything in advance, they would gradually devour Baron Enges.
“Brother and Mother always say the same thing, but honestly, isn’t it a perfect plan?”
It was probably a stroke of luck that Allen was alive.
The Baron Enges he returned to would be in ruins, and he would see Spencer Company transformed into Baron Spencer.
His naive actions would lead to the destruction of his entire family.
He wouldn’t have known before, but with the rise of new nobles and the changing continent due to the free thought that began in the City Alliance.
He was a typical, backward noble son who couldn’t adapt to the changing times.
“It’s a perfect plan to get beaten up.”
Allen instinctively flinched as Cain raised his fist.
“No, then how pathetic would it be for me, a noble, to be defeated by a mere merchant and bow down to them?”
“…….”
When Cain didn’t say anything, Allen looked at Elena and said.
“The most important thing for an Empire noble is honor. Should I just stand by and let my honor be trampled by some money-grubbing bastards?”
“Yes.”
Elena answered firmly.
“……Yes?”
Allen blinked his eyes blankly, not expecting the empress to say something completely different from what he had expected.
Unlike before, when she had been gentle, Elena spoke in an icy voice.
“Because you, Young Master Allen, are weak.”
“…….”
“You have no power. And you have no one with power on your side. Then you should bow down.”
“But as a noble, my honor…….”
“That’s only possible if you’re alive. If you want to burden your family by dying, then you can go back and die.”
Elena had lost her family.
And she had taken revenge with her own hands.
That’s why, even though she looked like a princess who knew nothing on the outside, she was a warrior with a heart as cold as Cain’s and a snowy wasteland within.
Cain continued Elena’s words.
“But you see, there’s someone powerful right in front of you.”
“……!”
Elena was so surprised that she tugged on Cain’s sleeve. Allen also hadn’t expected Cain to say this, so he raised his head.
Cain had a playful look on his face.
“If they’re hunting nobles, I think it would be fun for us to do some fishing.”
“Fishing?”
“And while we’re at it, we can teach this naive bait a lesson.”
Cain patted Allen’s shoulder with eyes that saw a tempting bait.
He instinctively felt that something was wrong.
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