Episode 69
[Notice: It has been warped!]
[Current location: Aldeon Fortress]
[Notice: New location information has been updated!]
“Oh, it’s cold.”
As soon as the light from the warp gate disappeared, Damian shrank as he looked at the plateau in front of him.
At first glance, it was a rugged highland reminiscent of the Gaema Plateau.
A place where you can hardly see the light, so you can only guess that the black is the mountain and the moonlight pouring over it is the sky.
Streetlights processed with magic stones were erected at 10-meter intervals, giving off a faint light.
Compared to the fortress, which is several tens of meters high, it is a place that can only be seen as fireflies.
This is the northwestern part of the Gais Great Mountains, and it is said to be a place where humans cannot live because it is rough.
It was < Berthas Plateau >.
“It reminds me of the old days.”
“Has the owner been here before?”
“I have been here once before. There was a similar place in my world.”
“Is that so!”
“ok. Like the weather.”
Damian looked around the warp gate as he put the bundle and the new chicks into his arms.
Indeed, it was a place that reminded me of my enlistment days.
Damian enlisted in the military as soon as he turned 20.
As a military number assigned to Cheorwon, Gangwon-do, and having to undergo cold weather training twice, he entered a remote area called Dongmakgol and performed combat engineering tasks such as building minefields.
It was very similar to what it was back then.
While camping in the valley of Dongmakgol, where the temperature dropped to minus 28 degrees Celsius, two people went into the A-type tents in the color of the national colors and set off dozens of hand warmers to endure the day.
So the moments where I was able to personally experience how far a person can endure.
And Damian saw hundreds of people, including himself, crowded at the warp gate.
It was not difficult to figure out that many adventurers, including himself, applied for the defense of Aldeon Fortress in this extreme land.
“Those who volunteered for the defense of Aldeon Fortress, please gather in the central plaza.”
“I inform you once again. There will be an instruction from Captain Mikhail in 30 minutes, so please gather in the central square for those who volunteered for the defense of Aldeon Fortress.”
Due to periodic guidance radio waves from soldiers lined up on both sides of the warp gate.
It was because the adventurers from the other world warping in and out were moving in perfect order to the central plaza.
“Shall we go too?”
“This is not the time, master! Hurry up and get me some clothes!”
And the moment when the bunch and the new chicks chirped at Damian’s words and were busy avoiding the cold in his arms.
“…hmm?”
“huh?”
Damian could see that the face of the user whose eyes met his had a sense of déjà vu that he had seen a lot of it somewhere, and that face quickly turned into contemplation.
“Everything, everything, you…!”
“what.”
Starting with the rudeness of showing up at the next gate and pointing at you at the same time.
It was Seo Hye-eun, the leader of the Great Wolf King’s raid party, who had been robbed of his equipment while competing with him once before.
“How could a vicious person like you be here…!!”
“There’s nothing you can’t say from the beginning.”
Damian narrowed his eyes as Hye-eun stood at the warp gate as if she had been nailed.
It was a very different outfit than before.
Hye-eun was wearing a set of < Light Mail >, a type of chain mail, and < Albot Silk > to maximize activity under it at the time of encounter in the Caliph Mountains.
Now, he was wearing the < Noble Blossom Set >, which reminds me of riding clothes, and the < Royal Guard Mail > with the eagle symbolizing the Earthraia family.
“woah. How much money did you spend?”
“Looks great, master!”
flash!
Looking at Hye-eun’s outfit, Damian and Munch-chi’s eyes twinkled like stars at the same time could be said to be full of pure yet intense desire that made even Hye-eun, who was pointing a finger at them, shrink.
It was because Hye-eun, who had already been hit by Damian once, had some trauma left that made her body harden just by looking at Damian and Munch’s eyes.
‘calm down. Calm down, you idiot…!’
“Why are you here?”
“I think I ate something wrong, master!”
When Damian and Moongchi looked at each other with strange eyes, Hyeeun gritted her teeth.
The past passed by like a kaleidoscope.
After being deprived of various equipment including < +6 Ishtart Epee > by Damian, Hye-eun had to hear from her teacher for the first time in her life that she seemed to be lacking in effort.
At the same time, I had to help the family work day and night to restore the equipment for a while.
The harsh closing training was a bonus.
Of course, thanks to that, I was able to achieve a sufficient level up without having to go hunting, and I was able to use the earth layer swordsmanship to a higher level.
Even so, it was not possible to completely erase all the humiliation and insults that Damian had suffered (?).
“Be prepared, today will be your memorial day…!”
“Eh.”
Chanang!
It could be said that it was very natural for such Hye-eun to draw a sword towards Damian and try to stab it with a sharp momentum like a javelin of a horseback knight right away.
Even though she participated in the defense of Aldeon Fortress here, it was also according to the traditional custom of the Earthraia family, a long-established warrior family in the Kingdom of Terra.
It was as if they had been dispatched for the well-being of mankind beyond national and racial boundaries.
The sight of Demian, who could be said to be his nemesis right now, standing in a half-naked suit was no different from a golden opportunity given to Hye-eun by God.
“You will regret it.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“If you don’t lower the knife, you’ll regret it.”
After-after after-after!
And, regardless of Hye-eun’s battle posture with her epee raised, Damian muttered to himself, clearing his ears as if foreseeing the upcoming calamity
… !!!”
Eventually, Hye-eun’s sword shot toward Damian at the speed of a beam of light, and with the momentum that seemed to pierce his neck at any moment, the Earthraia family’s poison sword method began to burst out of Hye-eun’s hand.
[Chevalier]
[Attaque Composée]
< Attaque Composée >.
It was an explosive stab that could pierce even a tolerable full plate mail.
“Anyway, I won’t listen to what others say even if I die.”
“…the owner?”
Shyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!
And the moment Damian looked around without even reacting to Hye-eun’s attack with a carefree face despite the frightened reaction of the bunch.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“…!”
Caang!
Eventually, a black figure soared up like a shadow in front of Demian’s eyes, raising the sword of Hye-eun’s < Atak Compose >, which seemed impossible to block easily.
At the same time, he vomited a spirit that kicked Hye-eun’s disheveled upper body and blew it to one side of the warp gate.
“Look at that. I said I would regret it.”
“It’s… black…!”
It was a destructive and speedy attack that made you feel like you would choke at any moment without even paying attention to Damian’s sarcastic remarks while standing at the warp gate.
“Here in Aldeon Fortress, stabbing with a sword is a sense of immediate execution. Do you want to die?”
‘This again… what…’
Hyeeun’s arm twisted in pain as the black figure looked down at her and muttered lowly.
It was an intrusion that didn’t notice at all even in the middle of the attack.
Wearing a crow-like cape, a bluish Broadsword hanging down, and a dark-colored < Leganza Leather Armor > set reminiscent of those of hunters.
A man wearing a mask that was so tight that his features could not be seen below his eyes.
“oh my. Good job knights. That woman suddenly ran amok by herself.”
“Looks like you have a grudge against them.”
“What does that matter? In the end, everyone stepped here to stop the monsters. I don’t mean anything other than that. Really.”
“…Then I won’t get involved any further.”
Poof!
And Hye-eun learned from Damian’s words, who had several conversations with the crow man, that the man’s status was not just a soldier, but a kind of < Knights >.
It was only through the message she heard from her teacher before leaving for Aldeon Fortress that she was able to instinctively guess what the man’s identity was.
‘Knight… Crow.’
Night crow knights.
They are the protagonists who protect Aldeon Fortress, the absolute line of defense of the border, and are said to surpass most of the Kingdom’s Guard Knight Commanders in terms of individual strength.
It could be said that it was a group of slaughter machines only to kill monsters.
“Judging by their behavior, it seems they were dispatched from the Earthraia family. It looks like the level of personnel recruited by the Earthraia family this time is very low.”
“no…!”
“If you are a member of a family that represents Terra, act accordingly. You must have heard about this place from your family. If you didn’t belong to Earthraia, I wouldn’t have let you go.”
When the man finished his words and turned around, Hye-eun’s face flushed red.
If the blush a while ago was because of Damian, it was because he was embarrassed now.
In order to fend off countless monsters coming from the unexplored lands in the west, they couldn’t escape from Aldeon Fortress 365 days a year.
If it was the Berthas Plateau, where people couldn’t live due to the extreme cold and barren environment, then the nobility of the Night Crow that the family said was not something that they could discuss.
“Yeah~. I didn’t see it that way, but the back is very good. I was beaten with a sense of immediate execution, but the Knights of the Night Crow didn’t even swing their swords.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You feel lucky. Because that class seems to have saved their lives. Or maybe the class has been demoted to an ordinary knight?”
“hey!!!!”
And while Damian passed Hye-eun’s shouting in one ear, while watching the supply start from the 24-person tent prepared in the central plaza, he began to insinuate toward Hye-eun, who had collapsed on the floor.
“I know how you feel about me. Stop being a stalker that makes people tired. Aren’t you ashamed of that?”
“I… I Ii…!!”
“Oh, and from now on, as the knights said, it would be better to focus on the mission? As the nobleman said, this place is not so easygoing.”
Maybe because he’s surviving, he doesn’t have enough time to care about things like me.
“Then let’s go first.”
Before long, Damian started heading towards the supply tent with the bundle.
