[517] Unknown Prosecutor (1)
The border area between Baiden and Ferris Kingdom is a dangerous area where local warfare continues even after signing an armistice.
However, it was also the perfect place for swordsmen who practice knights to experience real combat.
The village of Rapne, which is a little more biased toward Weiden from the border area.
One swordsman crossed the village entrance.
A body equipped with both agility and strength at the same time proved that muscles were not simply made for cool, and the huge straight sword behind the back was proof of that fact.
He was Ogent Lian, a knight ascetic who dropped out of Kaizen swordsmanship school to gain experience in combat and wandered the world.
“Damn it…”
A sound like scratching metal leaked from his completely rested throat.
After wandering the world in search of a battlefield, he became a mercenary on the side of the Kingdom of Baiden and engaged in a local battle with a soldier from Ferris.
However, the whole story was a war of attrition through secret negotiations between two regional officials to receive subsidies from the kingdom, and most of the hired mercenaries were killed to silence them.
Lian was suddenly attacked by his allies, but he survived and arrived here.
‘Even if I was a little careful…’
That’s what a mercenary’s life is like, wherever he goes.
Didn’t the parrot mercenary group they met in Galliant a while ago fall into bandits because they were caught up in a dispute between nobles over their interests?
‘It’s not good to beg for food here either.’
One of the reasons why the battlefield was exhausting was the fact that there was no place to rest even after leaving the battlefield.
The village I had just arrived in was no different, so I didn’t even see food scraps rolling on the floor, let alone a market.
Many houses had collapsed roofs and were not even repaired, and people’s faces were lifeless.
‘Then I have to cross the mountain tonight.’
There is no one to feed Lian.
He would have no choice but to surrender it if threatened with a sword, but he had seen numerous knight attendants who ended up becoming thieves while wandering the world.
“Whoa! Whoa!”
Suddenly, heat rose in my head and my head spun.
During the war, the wound in his side from an arrow began to throb violently.
First aid treatment was given, but the infection was not cured, and moreover, she hadn’t eaten for several days, so her body did not have the strength to endure it.
thud!
With the last of his strength, Ryan collapsed with his back against the wall beside my road.
“Whoa!”
The breath from his throat was hot enough to melt his teeth.
“Are you going to die?”
I didn’t know until I ran out after shouting at Klump.
There is no limit to bad things.
Fatigue, pain, fear, despair, everything that ruins a human being tormented Lian.
There was no instructor who would say that this was enough and stop the misfortune.
The world just says so.
If you can’t stand it, die.
‘Well, that’s okay too.’
Ryan doesn’t remember how he got out of the battlefield.
Only the image of himself, covered in blood and screaming, breaking through the siege of the soldiers of the two kingdoms and running amok, remained as an image from an omniscient point of view.
‘Death is also a good choice.’
Ryan smiled innocently.
Not because I was laughing, but because I wanted to see if I could still laugh.
In his endless despair, for the first time he felt the desire to run away from his life.
‘Because I’m not afraid of death.’
I’m just afraid of the white bones that will be buried in the ground without accomplishing anything.
“Sirone… Tess…”
Lian blinked slowly. Every time my eyelids closed, my field of vision narrowed by half.
“I’m sorry…”
“What’s wrong with you, Mister?”
At the end of my receding consciousness, I heard a young girl’s voice.
“are you okay? Come to your senses.”
Lian’s last memory was the image of the girl’s face pushed into the narrowed field of view, as if a hole had been punched in black paper.
* * *
-I don’t know yet. But it will be possible.
– Smille. Smille.
– It’s risky, but it’s worth a try.
– Smille. Smille.
“Huh!”
Rian, who raised her eyes, jumped to her feet.
I don’t remember the dream, but the repetitive sound, like an auditory hallucination, was still lingering in my auditory nerve.
“Damn it!”
When I dream of hearing hallucinations, I always curse words that pop out.
Am I going crazy?
Lian tried hard to turn away from her negative mind.
‘What the hell is a smille?’
The only hint was the grandfather’s anecdote that he heard when Jikdo received < Idea >.
When he arrived in a strange village after being mortally wounded after defeating bandits, he was saved by an old man and his granddaughter.
I don’t know what kind of treatment I received, but the word that I constantly heard while unconscious was Smille.
‘Is it the secret contained in the object?’
Lian stared at < Idea > leaning against the wall, but unlike Armand, the sword did not convey any information.
“huh?”
It was only after organizing his thoughts that far that he realized that he didn’t even know where he was.
As Rian hurriedly got out of bed and grabbed the handle of the straight sword, the door burst open and an eight-year-old girl with brown hair in braids entered.
“uh? Uncle woke up! Mom and Dad are awake!”
The girl looked out the door and shouted, and after a while a woman in her mid-thirties entered.
It can’t be called beautiful, but it gave a graceful impression for a village devastated by war.
“You are awake. What a relief.”
Realizing that the first people he met were a young girl and a woman, and there was no hostility in their eyes and tone, Lian finally relaxed his expression.
“Where is this?”
“It’s a town belonging to the Kingdom of Baiden.”
As befits a person living in a battlefield, she first gave us information to identify friends and family.
“Ah, the village…”
Then I remembered.
There was a girl who spoke to me right before I lost consciousness.
“But how did you bring me here?”
“I don’t seem to remember. I walked with my daughter by the hand. Of course, I collapsed as soon as I entered.”
Was it?
As soon as I realized that I wanted to live anyway, I felt bitter.
“Come out at once. I have prepared a meal.”
As the woman took her daughter out, Lian examined the bandaged body.
The area hit by the arrow was completely healed.
It was impossible for him to recover in such a short time since he couldn’t schema, but it was a familiar situation now.
It was because every time I had a dream in which I heard hallucinations, all wounds were completely healed.
‘Maybe my grandfather had a dream too?’
After pondering for a while, Lian got help and thought that the rudeness was severe, so she hurriedly got up from her seat and went outside.
The house wasn’t that big, so I could see the living room as soon as I left the door.
A girl was sitting at an old round table and the woman was making soup.
“There were many mistakes. Thanks to you, my life was saved.”
When Lian, who was sitting next to her, thanked her, the woman shook her head.
“I just disinfected the wound and applied medicine. It was amazing. It’s the first time I’ve seen a wound heal with my own eyes. It must be schema, right?”
Even if you are ignorant of swordsmanship, living in a battlefield is the way to hear this and that.
“Ah yes. Well… something like that.”
Ryan didn’t feel the need to explain a phenomenon he didn’t understand.
“By the way, uncle, are you a mercenary? What is your name?”
“me? rian. You?”
It was rare for knights to reveal their surnames in the practice of knights, as there were many cases in which the reputation of the family was tarnished while doing harsh work.
“Lian? Hmm Lian.”
The girl kept mumbling the name Lian and then said with a slightly disappointed expression.
“I don’t know. He must be a not-so-famous mercenary. Oh, my name is Liz.”
Ryan was stunned.
I never expected from the beginning that my name would be known in such a small town, but when I heard it through the mouth of an innocent kid, I was strangely offended.
“By the way, kid, I am not an uncle. He was only nineteen years old.”
Liz shrugged.
“i know. All the guys say so. At heart, I’m a teenager.”
“…”
While Lian looked at her with an absurd expression, a woman walked over to the table holding a plate of soup.
“I can’t do it if I make fun of my brother. I’m sorry, Liz was joking around.”
“But you called me a kid!”
Ignoring her daughter’s words, the woman sat across from her.
“Even though I traveled for a long time, my beard didn’t grow much. Liz is still too young to know.”
“But that means my face…”
The woman covered her mouth and giggled.
“just joke. Looking at it now, he is a young and handsome young man.”
“Haha, I don’t mean to hear that…”
Rian blushed and lowered her head, realizing the gaze of the girl and her mother, he smacked his lips in embarrassment.
A lot of playfulness seemed to be hereditary.
“Then let’s eat well.”
Lian gulped and gobbled up the soup.
To be honest, even if there were a few bugs in the soup, I felt like I could eat it with gratitude.
After waiting for Lian to satisfy her hunger, the woman shook hands and introduced herself.
“This is Sylvia. This is my daughter, Liz.”
Liz met Ryan’s eyes and stuck out her tongue.
“Then your husband…?”
“He is dead. He left us on the battlefield three years ago.”
Liz, thinking of her father, exclaimed excitedly.
“I hate war! I hate those thieves who come to meet me!”
“What did Liz’s mother say? When you have guests…”
Liz ignored her mother and grabbed Lian’s wrist.
“Your brother is very strong, right? Since I saved you, please get rid of the thieves who are harassing Mom.”
“When did you say you weren’t famous?”
“are you okay. Those thieves aren’t famous either. And I heard that there are some very strong knights even if they are not famous. Is your uncle like that too? Actually, is it really strong? I’ve never seen anyone carry a sword as big as my brother’s.”
Liz’s eyes were sincere.
‘Is that so…’
Of course, it must have been a goodwill favor, but there must have been a child’s eager anticipation in saving the dying Lian.
But Ryan couldn’t help them.
One thing I learned for sure while wandering around the world.
Sword is killing, and killing is responsibility.
It is true that he received help, but whether he could handle the responsibility when he chose to kill was another matter.
‘Because I can’t live here forever.’
“Don’t worry too much about it. It’s because Liz doesn’t know the world yet. And… it’s not all that bad.”
‘Isn’t that all bad?’
Ryan was rather concerned about that remark.
Come to think of it, where did Sylvia get the anti-inflammatory medicine?
The value of medicine on the battlefield is bound to transcend imagination.
Also, having enough food to willingly give food to others did not match the dreary landscape I felt when I first came to the village.
‘You scum
.
“Could it be that the thieves told the lady…”
“Hey! Sylvia!”
Just then, a drunken man shouted outside the door.
Liz, who had turned pale, hid behind her mother, and Sylvia also slowly got up with her complexion darkened.
bang!
A man who kicked the door as if he was about to break it strides in.
He was tall and had a scar running down his nose.
It was Fox, the vice-captain of the Red Spear Bandits.
“Where are you? The bastard who slept here last night! You can’t hide anything…!”
He looked around the house with fierce eyes and stopped at the table.
He was much younger and more handsome than he had been told.
“Huh? That’s right, right?”
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