My Villains Episode 277
52. Ancient Gate (5)
After dragging the dead wyverns and gathering them in a corner of the camp, pulling out their teeth and claws and stripping off their skins, it was late at night.
The skins were spread wide and hung under a tree that had been cleared of snow to dry off. Claws and teeth were cleaned and distributed in sacks.
Originally, just peeling off the skin would have required all of us to be beaten for about two days. Dealing with six massive monsters weighing up to one ton is just as laborious and time-consuming.
Fortunately, however, we had Utequai. He handled the wyvern like a big wild boar and peeled off the skin in an instant. It was entirely to Utequai’s credit that all the work was completed in just four or five hours.
I felt it the other day when I was skinning a brown bear, but he was like a skinning machine.
After loading the bag of claws and teeth onto the cart, I asked the Confair.
“About how much will this be?”
“well.”
He replied, roughly wiping his oily and bloody hands with snow.
“Leather will vary greatly depending on how you negotiate with the merchant. Teeth and claws should cost roughly twenty gold coins.”
“Chapter 20? In just two sacks?”
“Yes Nari.”
Twenty gold coins is an amount equivalent to the annual output of a small manor, which is certainly not insignificant.
But considering my circumstances, it’s not that much money.
Even if the money that goes out as a mercenary’s weekly wage is 23 silver coins and 6 pennies, that is, it is a little less than 5 gold coins. This means that sometimes you need this income to cover your expenses.
Of course, the reason I was spending money to maintain mercenaries and even call them little by little was for the future.
There is a realistic limit to being strong alone. My current level is 30 and the required experience is 150,000.
If you roughly calculate the experience gained from catching the wyvern, it would be a little less than 20,000, so you have to go through the same battle as just 8 or so to go up one level.
However, no matter how chaotic this world is, the experience points won’t come to you periodically like the Wyvern. Monsters are not endlessly regenerated like in other games.
In the end, the level up has no choice but to continue to be delayed. So I decided it was necessary to look for other power enhancement methods.
The result of that judgment was the mercenary.
All kinds of mysteries, including magic and miracles, exist in this world. There are also humans with magical physical abilities.
For example, Lord Langboldt, the first knight of Prince Ulkar, is a human without a handful of magical powers. Even so, he swung his sword like lightning to split the iron plate and jumped 2 meters while wearing plate armor. It is the sound of a superman that can only come out of a movie.
Right now, among my mercenaries, Fritz and Dervish Steedman often demonstrate superpowers that exceed human limits. Things like folding coins with your fingers, smashing people’s heads with punches, swinging your sword and splitting orcs in half.
That’s why he trained with mercenaries every morning. It was my judgment that one day, if the mercenaries under my command became strong enough and gave me miscellaneous magic tools, it would definitely become a useful force.
The short thought ended with Confyer’s additional words.
“There is nothing to be surprised about, sir. Originally, all items used in alchemy are expensive.”
“Alchemy?”
“Wyvern’s teeth and claws are materials that alchemists dream of. I don’t know exactly, but I heard that it has the property of pushing out poison and cold.”
“…Right.”
As Confair left to warm up, I sat down on a stump next to the wagon.
“It must have been an alchemy ingredient.”
I sighed lightly and looked up to see a round full moon. Even during the day there was not a single cloud, but the night sky was full of starlight.
Suddenly, one night in August, the scenery vividly comes to life.
One night when moonlight and starlight streamed down through a field of fir and pine trees and these jagged flies. One night a cool breeze blew under a large spruce tree.
Silky golden hair and white forehead, neatly curled eyelashes. At that time, that thin hand was holding my knee tightly.
Following the resurrected memories, something seemed to fill up in my heart.
“……trunnion?”
“O Ha
■己三
The thing that brought me out of my memory was Mungchi’s voice. He was looking at me with anxiety or worry filling his little face.
“Why?”
“…no.”
A bitter laugh flows out.
“No, what is it?”
Saying that, he stroked his hair, and Munchhi lifted his chin slightly and closed his eyes.
Moongchi didn’t leave my side for a while after Ellen left. The look in his eyes all the time back then was the same as before.
Suddenly, I raised my head and met eyes with Utequai, who was wiping himself in the snow on the border of the camp. Then he suddenly scooped up a handful of blood and oily eyes and threw them away.
“I-ssi”
I tried to avoid it, but the snowball was not aimed at me, but at the tree next to me. Snowballs shattered and poured over their heads.
“What are you doing you bastard! It’s dirty!”
“It is cleaner than your face.”
“what?”
I groped my face, but there was no blood or oil on it. Well, there’s no way I, a blood knight, didn’t know that I had blood on my body.
“There is nothing!”
Although he lost his temper, Utequai just laughed and wiped himself.
Utequai, who climbed the mountain at the call of the so-called ‘Mother God’ not too long ago, returned in just a week, just as he said. His legs were tattooed and his eyes were clearer than before.
After a short thought, I confessed without lies the reason Ellen left.
Contrary to my expectations, Utequai did not vent his anger. I wasn’t sorry or sad.
All he did was pat me on the shoulder after muttering, “That’s right.” After that, he hadn’t said a word about Ellen.
It was unclear exactly what Utequai was thinking. However, the fact that there were fewer things to worry about was enough to be thankful for.
I was taking revenge on Utequai with the help of Mungchi, but a group of mercenaries came to me.
“lily!” The four or five mercenaries, led by the heavy-duty Dervish, all had angry faces.
“……what?”
“Did you hear the story?”
“What kind of nonsense is that? What are you talking about?”
“Wyverns. This new kid here has been attacking because he stole an egg.”
At Dervish’s words, the mercenary with burns on half of his face – whatever his name was? – dragged the skinny boy forward. The boy’s face was pale as he was grabbed by the man’s violent hand.
“Cavas?”
“I sent him out to pick up some firewood, and he said he did something stupid, but I was so full of energy-”
I opened my mouth, scratching my eyebrows.
“…uh so?”
“yes? Do you think this bastard the size of a mouse called the wyverns to the campsite?”
Other mercenaries also gathered one by one in the sudden uproar. Dervish raised his voice as if everyone would listen.
“I didn’t make a mistake while scouting, I messed around with the monsters to fill my stomach. You should be punished sir!”
Well, that’s a problem.
Dervish’s request was justified. After hearing the truth, it was procedurally justified that Cavas was dragged in front of me instead of beating me arbitrarily. But…
“What kind of punishment would you like me to give you?”
“After beating them,
you have to take off their clothes and drive them out.”
At her words, Cavas’ face turned pale. Behind the scenes, Golman and Shea shouted ‘No!’ He shouted and tried to step out, but was stopped by other mercenaries.
“…Isn’t that a bit harsh? Cabas is still a kid. And it’s a bit hard to say it’s thanks to you, but you’ve also been able to get a decent amount of extra income.”
“lily! What is that-”
Dervish’s face contorted at once, and the Confair, who had been standing silently next to her, stepped forward, blocking her.
“Thanks to Nari, Mr. Hatanka, and Lady Heila, this raid was practically a fortune. It’s like being hit by a thunderbolt.”
He looked around and spoke in a calm voice.
“But it does not change that the newcomer has brought misfortune to the encampment. I think you should be punished.”
“…so let’s drive them out with a beating? In this valley at night?”
“People do that often, sir. Allies who cause harm to those around them are more dangerous than enemies.”
Cavas stiffened and could not protest. Goleman and Shea, who were making a fuss, were also silenced by the other mercenaries.
It’s a pain in the ass. I just want to give it all up and go to sleep, but I can’t do that, right?
I folded my arms and pretended to be in trouble, but Heila appeared next to me and suddenly opened her mouth.
“Where did you pick it up?”
“……yes?”
“That egg. Where did you pick it up?”
At the sudden question, Kavas kept his mouth shut and barely answered.
“There was a nest on the four cliffs in front of that yo-yo, so I picked it up there.”
“Cliff Nest. Where is it?”
“That’s…
“Can you point with your hand?”
Cavas pointed somewhere with a trembling hand while Donnie’s hand was gripped by the collar. I glanced back and saw a not very high cliff under the bright moonlight.
“I see.”
Heila blinked once and looked back at me.
“There is a story I heard from merchants in Modos.”
“…Modos?”
“huh. They said they came in from the northwest because the southwest road leading to Seteniora Monastery and Odenlock was blocked.”
Southwest road leading to Seteniora Abbey and Odenlock. It was where we are now.
“And the group of wyverns built their nests just a short distance away. They probably attacked and ate travelers and merchants on the road.”
Everyone in the camp was listening. Heyla’s voice was very low, but thanks to her noble status, powerful blood magic, and the usual goodwill, no one expressed dissatisfaction.
“This is the domain of the Wyverns. This is not Zen.”
“…So you’re saying that even if it wasn’t for Cavas, the Wyvern would have attacked us?”
“huh. I must have been aiming for the night.”
It’s a night raid by a bunch of wyverns.
I’ve been imagining it for a while, but I don’t think it will be easy. It can be stopped, but there must be a few casualties.
Strange expressions and murmurs floated among the gathered mercenaries, as if they had similar thoughts.
Heila stood still, blinking, looking at me.
After leaving Ellen, my anger was directed at Heila.
Of course, I knew that the direction of my anger was completely wrong, so I did not express it directly to her. However, he was not relaxed enough to have a comfortable conversation with her.
So, really embarrassingly and childishly, I treated myself as someone who didn’t have Heila for a while. He didn’t speak and didn’t even look at me.
Still, Heila didn’t change much from usual. He stayed near me all the time, eating, reading, taking care of Altonise, looking into Hrunting (what it was).
About a week passed like that, and around the time I left Paulville, I calmed down and apologized to her. I know very well that I shouldn’t be angry with you, saying I’m sorry for looking ugly.
Heila then blinked three times quickly before replying, “It’s okay.” In that moment, I could notice. She had no idea that I was angry.
I burst out laughing when I saw Heila sipping tea pretending to be calm.
Thanks to Heila, the commotion of the night ended.
The mercenaries admitted that Cavas had summoned a wyvern, but it was only a planned attack.
However, Cavas’s faults did not completely disappear, so he had to pay the price for the newcomer’s deviation from the campsite.
According to the implicit rules of the mercenary world, the conductor Dervish Esson and others suggested that they clean up with 5 lashes.
I was still reluctant to beat a 16-year-old child, but the reason of the world is that when I go to Rome, I have to follow the Roman law… I am a person from Korea, a country of gullible gullibility. there is no reason to do
So, for the next month, Utequai’s punishment for Kavasu was replaced by becoming a demonstration partner for Nabuk.
If there were people who expressed dissatisfaction, I was going to just threaten to shut up, but I was a bit embarrassed because everyone seemed to agree.
Two days later, after walking for some time past the three-way intersection that leads southward to Odenlock and westward to Seteniora Monastery, we finally arrived at our stopover.
A high stone wall with more than 800 years of history and a desolate site beneath it.
It was the gateway to an ancient empire.
