Chapter. 19. Game of tag (5)
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Hyde was confused.
The eyes were looking at the old man and his house tracing the past,
the ears were listening to his story, and
the head was looking at the image of the supposed ‘Warlord’ as if it were his memory.
Like a memory. It’s like a memory…
‘Is this his memory?’
‘Then does this have something to do with the fact that I have been tormented by mysterious impulses and dreams for so long?’
I’m not sure, but somehow I thought it might be so. A strong memory of a moment that seems blurry and clear at the same time.
I still didn’t understand why this was happening to him, but I was strongly convinced that I needed to know more about it.
Hyde carefully chose his words and asked a question to the old man sitting across from him at the old table.
“They came to me twice, once I saved them and once I killed them all. Is that correct?”
“okay.”
“At what point was each?”
“The first one was about 12 years ago. “It was four years ago when I came back.”
“It was 12 years ago and 4 years ago. “How did you meet?”
“…I saved him from falling. “He was the only one who survived the unspeakable horror.”
With the words [I saved it], the old man’s hands tightened and his joints popped out.
“If only I hadn’t brought that killer back then…”
Regret clearly visible even in eyes that have become blurred with age.
While the old man was pondering the past, Hyde was looking at the events left behind in his silence.
Six trains parked at the intersection of the tracks, full of bullet marks as if they had been shot at each other.
People bursting and torn in all sorts of ways, just like the tattered trains.
And the old man from about 10 years ago who is walking through the traces of the battle, searching for unbroken weapons, equipment, train parts, etc., and
the man crawling out of the devastation saying,
“Whoa!”
‘Six trains. The elite strength, including the engineer and the Auror Shard Knight, is at least 80, and there are also a lot of mute corpses of various kinds. The level… is not that high.’
‘intersection. Large broken mining equipment. That’s equipment used to mine magic stones. Considering the scale, we can’t have high expectations for profitability… but it’s a magicite mine anyway.’
‘The two human groups fought over the magic stone mine, and as the battle dragged on, even Mute, who had heard the commotion, rushed in, resulting in a three-way battle. ‘It’s a stupid thing that sometimes happens on the front lines with large dungeons.’
Although land is the most precious resource, if protecting the land requires uprooting the city, it is natural to give up the land, no matter how precious it is.
Perhaps the two groups in the video are also people at a front-line outpost that was cut off from rear support in that way. As it was the front line where magic batteries had to be fired every day to the point of melting, the magic stone mine adjacent to the city was like a lifeline. Since this thin lifeline could not be divided in two, a fight broke out between the two adjacent outposts.
Squeak – Squeak –
A man intervened between the two groups engaged in a fierce firefight.
Chijiii—-ik!!!!
“Ugh!”
At that moment, a terrible noise and the sensation of scraping metal with fingernails filled my mind.
A sensation so strong that it overshadows memories. The sound of gunshots and screams mixed from humans and mutes.
‘This guy is really a monster, isn’t he?’
The first video I saw ended with him advancing on soft ground, but the current one showed his battle in a blurry manner, as if it had been scratched and randomly split.
‘….ah! ‘Don’t let that crazy… dig in!’
‘Aaaah!’
‘Damn it… the diagonal lines are double-‘
‘…. I’m being used!’
Even though it is a small abandoned outpost, thanks to the limited means of transportation such as trains, it is the combined effort of the two outposts that defended the bedrock area against Mute, even though it did not have regular troops. In addition, it was a fierce battle with an army of mutes coming from a large dungeon.
The sight of people moving freely through the fire with nowhere to step was so bizarre that it was almost amazing.
Ability to freely use a large arcane shooter that is overspecified even as a mounted firearm.
His ability to use the vacuum created by overwhelming firepower and oppression like a tunnel and swing the firepower concentrated on himself like a sword towards three different groups suggests that he is controlling the entire battlefield under his eyes, going beyond his individual combat power.
Of course, even with such advanced movements, it was impossible to completely avoid the train’s bombardment, and he also fell on top of the others who were caught in the spot and died.
=========
“….cough.”
“oh. “Are you out of your mind?”
“This is…”
“Please lie down. “It’s a bit far away from where the driver fell.”
“…Just leave it where it is.”
“This old man didn’t serve me for no reason, so there’s no need to be humble. “After you gather yourself, please do us one small favor…”
.
.
.
.
=========
The sight of a man waking up from a shabby bed followed the words of an old man who had been immersed in silence.
“I lived quite far from the city and the railroad tracks. “Teldrat is a complete plain, so there aren’t many places like that, but the Rodrik region has quite a few small rocky areas here and there.”
“…Was he a retired Shard Knight?”
“Not me, but my son. It was a lucky case. I earned what I deserved, my memory was still intact, and I found someone to spend the rest of my life with. Thanks to this, my son wanted to quit the life of a Shard Knight, but to do that, he had no choice but to turn his back on the world.”
Most of Shad Knight’s last years were miserable. Either you will be hunted by fragment hunters who covet the fragments you have absorbed, or you will become stronger by eating your memories and become a monster in order to survive, or you will die in battle.
So Shard Knight, who has decided to ‘retire’, chooses to disappear from the world as the old man said. Building a small house on a rock far from the city or in a rocky area too small to be used and living in a place where no one visits, disconnected from the outside world.
Hyde had also seen a retired shard hunter who specialized in hunting only shard knights, so he knew something about it.
He is extremely reluctant to show his face, so he sometimes travels to distant cities to live as a knight and lives with someone who will exchange the money he earns for water and food. That is why he usually stays alone with his family.
The old man’s son said that a total of three family members, including two old Shard Knights with similar feelings, had retired together and lived in seclusion. They say they buy equipment to collect rainwater and dew, find mushroom seeds that grow even in barren places even though they are tasteless, and explore historical sites. They hide the preserved food they bought little by little on a rock that no one knows about and build a house.
It must have been a peace that was so narrowly achieved.
And if people living in hiding like that didn’t pick up scraps from the battlefield and brought people home, there was only one answer.
“I guess I ran out of money to the point where I had to expose my hideout.”
“There is that, but it happened because my son and his wife had a child. “My son was sad that his son was trapped in this wasteland because he was a Shard Knight.”
“So you brought the Warlord alive?”
“…Because he was a knight with great armament. Those who are tied down to an outpost that is always under strain cannot be equipped with such expensive shrapnel weapons. Since he was probably a Shard Knight dispatched from a nearby big city, I was hoping that if I showed him his favor, I would be able to get a place for my grandson and daughter-in-law… so I ended up doing something I had never done before…”
And so the Warlord suffered a disaster. They survived the scene and recovered at their home.
‘….I’m conflicted.’
Although he didn’t know what the conflict was about, Hyde could tell that the Warlord from 12 years ago was deeply conflicted about something. The nervousness in the eyes when looking at people full of expectations. What is repeated in my anxious gaze are the images of people living poor but peaceful lives, and his weapons, which have not yet been cleaned of blood, leaning against one wall. An expression that becomes faintly soft for a moment, and terribly heavy emotions that instantly cover and subside.
=========
“Citizenship for the newly born child and one adult who will be the child’s guardian.”
“I know this is an unreasonable request! But… since you are also a Shard Knight, don’t you understand my son’s situation to some extent? “Why should a child spend the rest of his life in this shabby land because he is guilty of something?”
“….All right. “Then I will take your wife to the city on our way back.”
“yes? No, if you at least wait until the child is born… You can come back after a few years at the most…”
“It would be better if I never come back.”
“Oh my…”
“If you don’t want to, I’ll go back alone.”
“Oh no! Please! Instead, you must keep your promises! “We need to provide a place for each child and one adult in a safe big city.”
“…I promise.”
=========
With those words, the Warlord from 12 years ago left the village of Shad Knight, tired of the old man and the world. With some food and water packed by the old man and a pregnant woman.
Three months later, someone left a package near a rock, and there was a dried umbilical cord, a letter from the child’s mother, and an address written on it. That night, the old man’s son could not sleep all night, and the next morning the old man had to face his son’s empty bed.
The son who returned after four months had a brighter expression than anyone else. He returned with a small piece of clay showing the child’s footprints, revealing that the child was a boy, and spoke of the joys of the world he had not seen in a long time. From that day on, my son left his hiding place once every six months and headed to the city where his wife and son were.
And at some point, my son didn’t come back. He tried to stop his son several times, saying it was dangerous, and convinced his son that he had no choice but to hope for a good life, even to the point where his neck was bruised, but the old man’s fatherly spirit could not overcome his son’s fatherly spirit. So the old man waited for his son, who did not return, for several years.
Time passed so quickly, 4 years ago.
‘There’s no way you could have done that at that time…’
‘…I had work nearby.’
The Warlord said this to the old man who greeted him warmly, wondering if he might know any news about his son and his wife.
“He seemed like a completely different person than when I met him 12 years ago. “No matter what happened in the past 8 years, there was no scar on my skin.”
He spoke less than before and handed the small package to the old man without saying a word. A train ticket worth more than a thousand gold, a package containing a handful of dried mushrooms and a bottle of water, just like the old man had told me about before.
=========
“The train drivers have good eyesight, so as long as you stand next to the track at a certain time holding the ticket, they will take the chair for you.”
“So… is this really a train ticket? Oh my god… How can you care so much about this old man…” “
… I just have an excuse to keep him alive so I can still take care of him.”
=========
The old man packed up his few belongings and said goodbye to the residents of his small neighborhood, where only two houses remained.
“When I came down from the rock village with a happy heart, the man was already gone. I understand. When we first met, we had quite a conversation, but I heard that he was reluctant to take the magic train due to certain circumstances. I thought you would have left in a creaky handcar like last time. In fact, I was so excited that I couldn’t see anything.”
Hyde felt the old man’s voice gradually sinking.
“I should have just left like that…. Then I remembered that I left behind my grandson’s umbilical cord and the box containing my daughter-in-law’s letter….” This was the
only thing in the life of an old man who lived alone, planting mushrooms and raking dew each day. The pleasure was imagining the happy faces of my son, wife, and grandson living in a distant city somewhere, and stroking the box containing their traces. No matter how crazy you are, you left that behind.
Since there was quite a bit of time left for the train, the old man climbed the stairs of the familiar rock village without thinking much.
And he was able to meet again the people who had seen him off only half an hour ago.
The driver who showed great kindness to
the people who all fell asleep and the family of the elderly man.
And the sight of neighbors stacking firewood on top of piles of firewood that had been torn down from their homes.
=========
“What is this? Why are these people, for what reason, what the hell is this….”
“….”
“Is the Lord dead?”
“….”
“Did the driver say that?”
“….”
“Aren’t you asking me if you did that? “Are you trying to kill and burn all these people!!!”
“….yes.”
“Why on earth for what reason!!!!! Then why did you keep me alive like this? Whyeeeeee!!!!”
=========
“I forgot my hesitation. He said that and lit the firewood. “The guy who watched my evil corpse until it burned to the ground next to me ended up leaving without telling me why he saved my life.”
“You’re telling me that they killed all the unrelated people in the rock village, leaving only you alive?”
“okay. “And that too while I was down for a while.”
“Didn’t you say that the other two families there were a retired Shard Knight like your son and his family?”
“Both Venter and Gareth were Shard Knights who had absorbed several pretty decent colorless fragments, if not colored fragments.”
“The dead people were lying there without any injuries, as if they were asleep, and there were no signs of battle in the village?”
“I know what you suspect. I asked too. He confessed it with his own mouth. I killed it and now I don’t hesitate. “The Warlord is the murderer who killed all the people there.”
Jjieeeeing-!
『It can’t be!』
“That’s-”
“Hmm? what?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I feel very sick today. Hahahaha….”
Hearing the old man’s words, Hyde swallowed the urge that was about to escape without him knowing.
I don’t know why, but somewhere in my heart, there was someone screaming that Warlord was not that kind of person. A thought that popped out from somewhere in my heart before I even thought about it.
Is it really impossible?
‘…It’s strange.’
Considering the information collected so far, it was true that something was not right.
According to the testimony of a person who met the old man before, the Warlord only conquered three dungeons alone and left, without causing any damage to the nearby outpost.
12 years ago, he showed himself drifting in the midst of serious conflict, nervousness, anxiety, and pressure, and even performed a good deed that was somewhat heartbreaking. Given the circumstances, it is clear that he was the one who threw the package into the rock village. If what I felt in the video is clear, I felt quite a sense of relief when I made the promise of ‘one child and one guardian’. After killing six trainloads of drivers in a mine not far away.
And four years ago, he became a cold-blooded murderer and murdered his elderly neighbor.
‘Which is the real him? What criteria are there for killing people? Or was it something that happened between the events that changed him dramatically?’
Even as Hyde, who was skilled at reading people, he couldn’t understand what on earth this Warlord was doing.
What is certain is that he is reluctant to take the Magic Train to the point where he travels around all areas with a handcart.
It has tremendous combat power and an equally great combat intelligence.
And for unknown reasons, it has a deep connection with Hyde himself.
“…Warlord After he left, I boarded the train he had prepared with a heart full of anxiety and confusion. It wasn’t until I got on the train that I got to hear a bit about how the world works. How many fortress cities in the old Rodrik region where I lived have fallen? The nobles of the entire region have become distrustful of each other to the point where union is impossible. Most people are leaving this area, which has been engulfed in war, and are taking refuge in the fortress city belonging to the Teldrat Empire. “The train I took was not to Kingsland, the only big city in the Roderick region, but to Wigen.”
“The rich people on the train with me were talking nonsense about the Warlord’s ghost stories. The Brastol family, a great noble family rooted in Rodrik’s territory, is on the verge of disappearing. Hundreds of soul magicians employed by the Brastol family have betrayed the entire fortress city and handed over the entire fortress city to the Warlord. The only group that can stop his army is already on this continent. “I’m talking about the rumor that it’s not inside.”
The moment Brastol’s name came up, I felt Pablo, who was recording next to me, flinch. Information containing the names of great nobles. In some cases, it is a dangerous thing that can cause you to be chased by them just by hearing it.
“I arrived at this place, Wigen, following the guidance of the man who killed all my neighbors. I had no son or daughter-in-law. All I have left is the label of a refugee from Roderick’s flock. That’s the end of my story. “I don’t know how it wasn’t too long.”
“It was long and full of valuable information. Thank you very much, and I’ll have to go now, sir. “Pablo, wake up.”
“yes? Oh wait a minute. “I haven’t written it all down yet – wow!”
“I’ve memorized everything, so let’s just finish it.” As the old man said, it was too long a story and the time dragged on to a dangerous level.”
After cursorily saying hello, I pulled Pablo, who was acting awkwardly, onto my side.
“Is it taking time?”
“okay. hour. “I noticed it halfway through, but it was so fascinating that I couldn’t skip it without hearing the whole story, so it stayed.”
Quang!
As I hurriedly kicked out the door, the sight of the Roderick Refugee Camp came into view, unlike when I entered, without any trace of people.
In a scene where it seemed as if they had evacuated in advance, an old man’s voice was heard from behind a half-closed door.
“…I’m sorry for tricking you.”
“It’s done. “He also told me to notice along the way.”
“Hey, Mr. Hyde? “If you can tell me what it is….”
“You said that earlier. The entire old Rodrik region is already a battlefield, and the Warlord has begun to lead an army rather than an individual, destroying a great family called Brastol. Refugees have been coming here not just now, but for as long as four years.”
“Oh, so what?”
“But that’s not true, it started like that four years ago, so why is Warlord still treated as an urban legend in this region, including Wigen? Doesn’t that make sense? That’s not an ‘urban legend’, it’s just a living legend. “That too is currently ongoing.”
“Uh… huh? Is that so?”
“The fact that such a bastard’s actions were not known in a big city like Wiggen for as long as 4 years means that the city’s nobility has kicked out all the bastards who speak out through clenched teeth. “If there are rumors that people who are not just nobles but even from great families have been cut off by individual forces, the basis of rule may be shaken.”
And the place where we are is the refugee village that came from the ‘Rodrik Territory’.
“How many of the refugees hiding in their territory could have been missed by a noble family that was so intent on blocking news from the other side? There’s only one train to get in? “Did you say there are several other refugee villages similar to this one?”
“Uh huh?!”
“Wouldn’t it be right to call it a ‘group management area’ rather than a refugee village? After trapping them in the sun and digging in so persistently, it becomes a trap that the Warlord and those who hear the news from the other side will inevitably come to? Isn’t that right, old man?”
“There is one more. All of the nobles in this area are afraid of the Warlord’s forces. So, thinking that there are more people like me that he let go for unknown reasons, he captured them all and kept them alive. A kind of hostage. “I don’t know what it is, but I think there must be a reason why that massacre was spared.”
Ah, I didn’t know that far, but it could be possible.
“Then…”
“From the beginning, these refugee camp guys had no intention of kicking us out. Even if I hadn’t acted like a fool, the villagers would have come up with some reason to drag us in. And while we who were looking for information listened to the villagers’ speeches, the rest of us contacted the noble families. As you can see, there is a guy who came all the way here looking for news about the Warlord. He said, “Get him!” “Sang-hani leaves the village empty and runs away.”
“Ha, but Mr. Hyde said so! There is nothing you can do about making a living! Speaking of sources of income, the people here also-”
“If you play the role of a noble rattle, won’t you be able to get a handful of mushrooms? Holding us as I said was probably the way the people here made a living. “I got a little excited and made a hasty move, but I ended up acting like a fool.”
chuck. chuck. chuck. chuck.
The sound of metal boots coming from not far away.
While I was explaining, I looked around without stopping, but I had no idea where to get out of this ant-hill-like place.
‘The way I came in… If I had any thoughts, I would have blocked it first. There is no separate fish trap for this.’
They gather refugees from Roderick in one place and lure the one who can get to the truth of the case. As a bonus, it is also the last hostage in case the Warlord attacks.
“Ha, did you send that guy?”
“Oh, that person…”
“Yeah, I think he’s the guy we all know.”
As I watched the driver walking down the same road we came from inside the refugee camp from a different perspective than when I came in, I couldn’t help but think that the nobles had an amazing head here.
A complicated road. A narrow rock passage unique to Wigen. And the star of Wigen, who is called a spy in this area if you don’t know him.
“Stone Knight, what are you doing all the way to this back alley?”
Master Knight Tachelm is a master-level shard knight also known as the Stone Giant. He is also called a stone knight because he is compatible with rock magic fragments.
As the name suggests, a small stone pillar was seen growing following his footprints.
“I come here three times a week to catch rats, so I’m more used to it than that. Anyway, it’s as good an insight as it is infamous. Pathfinder.”
“Me Ash?”
“I know. Is there any way the city wouldn’t keep an eye on a wealthy person who stays at the station? Moreover, if he is famous among the nobles like you.”
“Wow, what an honor.”
I put Pablo down and slowly lowered my posture. If its capabilities are as I heard, we are already within its range.
‘Shall I use it?’
The hand hesitated around the sword handle.
“Hyde and that boy. For violating the city security law-”
-Clud!
“Please cooperate!”
“Knock it!”
-Kaaaaaaaaa!
“Hoooh. I heard it was Oranite. That’s an interesting ability, huh? Have you converted? Or is it alchemy?”
A wall that narrowed in unknowingly and a bronze structure that suddenly appeared and blocked it.
“[Framing a portable outdoor party venue]. “It’s a relic from the imperial era, dude.”
In the end, Hyde cursed himself for picking up an artifact worth over 500,000 shillings instead of grabbing the sword.
“Before I leave….”
….click!
Kuaaaaaaaa!
A bronze structure that starts to expand and crush the stone wall.
This object, produced during the golden age of the empire, is a relic made of three parts: frame and furniture decoration. It was created by the nobility of the time, when luxury and enjoyment were at their peak, to easily create a banquet hall in ‘any extreme environment.’
By the standards of that era, extreme environments were usually like boiling molten iron or a deep-sea hurricane, so it was a metal structure that incorporated the earth magic concepts of ‘blocking’ and ‘isolation’ that are now out of practice.
The downside is that it is disposable. And –
crispy!
Similarly, without the expensive ‘Imperial Era Magic Stone’, it would be destroyed in an instant.
Of course, it was enough for the passage to return to its original appearance, albeit briefly, due to the influence of the artifact.
“Pablo! road! road!”
“I said I was a pathfinder!” “I’m not that kind of pathfinder! hurry!”
“Up up! “A narrow passage that crawls from the top to the left!”
Pabababak!
While Tachelm was momentarily distracted, Hyde, with Pablo at his side, disappeared into the passage in an instant.
“…Your escape is as fast as your reputation.”
Tachelm put his hand into the rock passage for a moment and then withdrew his hand. Because the value of the fragments I received this week has already exceeded the value.
And
“…if we get it right, we’ll have to pay enough to bankrupt the Lord of Wiggen.”
The moment his hand reached for the sword, even if just for a moment, all of his senses went on alert.
“….grow. The security violator left the passageway. “Just catch it yourself.”
After completing the formal report, Tachelm took one look at the passageway where Hyde had disappeared and immediately lost interest.
Monitoring and protecting the entire city at all times. That alone was well worth the weekly salary he received.
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