Chapter 383
Zich noticed them when he was looking around the area where the mercenaries stayed to gain more information about Til. The mercenaries camped outside and below the castle walls probably to maintain their autonomy. Thus Zich had to go beyond the castle walls to see the mercenaries’ base and it was when he was walking in that direction that he met Glen’s eyes. There was no need to say who saw who first. Like lovers reuniting they recognized each other instantly. Of course it was without an ounce of love in their eyes but more likely hatred. Yet even if their relationship was fake and both parties wanted to spy on each other the two were too well acquainted to simply ignore each other.
“Huh? What is it Glen?” Lara turned her head to see what Glen was looking at and noticed Zich. She also looked surprised to see him. Glen treaded towards Zich and Zich waited for Glen to reach him patiently.
“It’s been a while sir.”
“Indeed sir.”
The two did not show a hint of their clear loathing for each other. If Lyla had been there she would have been impressed by the thick masks they were both wearing. As if they had planned it beforehand the two addressed one another with the perfect level of distance and awkwardness much like a pair that had battled together a couple of times but didn’t get much closer due to clashing personalities.
“I didn’t expect to see you here. Did you come here to investigate the monster peculiarities at the Denest Mountain Range?”
“Yes sir. While I was passing by this area I coincidentally learned of the monster attacks occurring here.” Of course there was another reason why Zich had come to this place but he had no intention of revealing this fact. Glen nodded.
“That’s a splendid decision sir. I am proud of you as a fellow Karuwiman Honorary Holy Knight.”
“Oh well.” Zich carelessly responded to Glen’s fake flattery. Then he commented “I see that your party has increased sir.”
Up until now Glen had only one companion: Lara Browning. However now he had two more. Of course they weren’t the companions Glen had from his pre-regression days. Lubella was currently working as the Saint for the Karuwimans while Leona returned to her elf forest. Lastly Elena was now a member of Zich’s party. Three of Glen’s original companions had changed their trajectories due to Zich’s influence. Zich felt a great amount of joy and pride about this fact.
“Yes we have some new companions. Let me introduce you to them.” Glen pointed at the companion closest to him. “This is Chelsea Windne here. She was even selected as a potential candidate to be the Karuwiman Saint. However she very graciously left everything behind to travel with me.”
“Nice to meet you. I am Chelsea Windne” Chelsea introduced herself to Zich curtly. Then she smiled while looking at Glen. “As I told you before there’s no need to thank me. I should be thanking you instead since I am happy that I can be part of your travels.”
“Haha Chelsea is always overflowing with consideration for others.”
Zich stared at the woman named Chelsea Windne. ‘So she was a saint candidate like Lubella…’ If that was true she probably had considerable skills since not anyone could be a saint candidate. ‘If I think about the concern Lubella told me about before it makes me question that.’ Yet even Zich didn’t think that the Chelsea Windne in front of him could be the concern that Lubella had confided in him about. There was no need for him to think to that extent anyway. Then Glen pointed to another one of his companions.
“She is our party’s mage Pina Acous.”
“…You are Zich?”
“Yes.”
“…I heard that one of your companions is the granddaughter of the master of Sunewick’s magical tower.”
“If you are talking about Elena then yes.”
An indifferent perhaps even cold expression formed on Pina’s face. She was wary of her competition.
“Did she learn how to do magic?”
“Of course miss. Not only does she have an outstanding teacher but she also places tremendous effort in her studies. She will be stronger than most mages now.”
“Okay. Thank you.” It seemed that Pina had a connection to Elena in some way but Zich didn’t dig into this matter. He could ask Elena about it later if he was curious about it.
‘It seems like he’s got the basic formation down.’ Two sword wielders one mage and one healer. The party’s balance was even better than Zich’s party which was heavily concentrated on damage dealing.
‘Of course we won’t lose if we battle them though.’ Truthfully he wouldn’t even need Hans Snoc or Elena. With just him and Lyla they could finish them off. However Zich didn’t let his guard down since his opponent had the cheat-like power of regression and even cornered Zich to his deathbed once.
‘It really became troublesome.’
Not only did they have to find a place where they guessed a tree would be but they also had to survey Til’s surroundings since he was a prospective Demon Lord; now Glen Zenard had appeared. The situation had become more complicated. Yet Zich didn’t plan on disregarding Glen.
‘I should think of this positively.’
If he spied on Glen he might find a clue as to how Til became a Demon Lord. Zich stared deeply at Chelsea and Pina standing by Glen’s side. However he noticed something slightly strange.
‘Lara Browning.’
She was the one who had continued to be Glen’s companion while the other three original members didn’t. She stood behind Glen.
‘Her expression doesn’t look good.’ He glanced at her waist and thought ‘It seems like she didn’t abandon her sword either.’ Please visit fr𝐞𝐞wn.𝒸o𝔪 website to read fastest update
Even though Zich heard that Glen suggested to Lara to take up a shield instead of a sword she firmly held onto her sword.
‘Of course Lara Browning with a shield was not bad.’ In fact she wasn’t just ‘not bad’. Before the regression she defended against all of Zich’s attacks in their fight against him. Considering that her battling skills with a shield were formidable.
‘Still a sword suits her much more.’ Even though Zich hadn’t seen her fight many times Zich was sure of this. “Ms. Browning it’s also been a while.”
“Yes it’s been a while.” Even though she accepted his greeting judging by her voice it didn’t seem like she had positive emotions about Zich. However he no longer felt any animosity from her like before.
‘No is she just merely feeling down?’ Zich was able to find out the reason for her state right away.
‘She’s being pushed out.’
He saw a subtle distance between the three of them including Glen and Lara. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for relationships to change as new people joined a party. However Zich didn’t think that Lara was being pushed out for a reason like that.
‘Is she getting outcasted with Glen’s lead?’
This made too much sense. Zich clicked his tongue inside his mind but didn’t reveal his thoughts. He couldn’t reveal that he had figured out Glen Zenard’s true nature yet.
‘I need to stab his back when he least expects it.’
“Then Mr. Zenard will you be hunting monsters from now on?”
“Yes it’s only right. We’re also planning to go around the city to protect people and try our best to investigate why all of this is happening.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to do a good job.” Zich calmly let out words that he didn’t even mean.
“Mr. Zich what will you do?”
“I also have a similar goal. We have to defeat the monsters and find out the reason for these monster ambushes.” Of course Zich was going to focus on investigating the reason for these happenings or more specifically the tree. However there was no need for him to share this information with Glen.
“We might fight together like before.” Glen then erased the friendly smile off his face and said a bit stiffly “I hope what happened last time won’t happen again.”
Glen was talking about when Zich tortured Condel Siede and killed him.
In contrast Zich smiled and said “As I said before if you want to force your opinions on me there’s only one way.” Zich tapped the scabbard holding Windur on his back.
Glen’s companion’s faces stiffened. Chelsea and Pina slightly held onto their staffs and Glen blocked them with his hand. “It’s all right. There’s no point in fighting right now.”
“Yes Mr. Zenard’s words are correct. There’s no point in fighting right now. The situation is dire right now and there’s no reason to fight.”
On the other hand it also meant that if the situation was different and there was a suitable reason they would fight. A slight tension flowed between Zich and Zenard’s companions. However just like he said Zich had no intentions to fight Glen right now.
“It seems like you recently arrived in the city and all of you must be tired. I’m afraid I’ve been holding onto you for too long. Then I’ll take my leave now. I have things to do.”
Like this Zich bent his neck one time and passed Glen and his companions. Glen’s gaze followed Zich’s back but Zich didn’t even turn back once and disappeared into the crowd of people.
Chelsea stood next to Glen and asked “Is that the person named Zich?”
“Yep.”
“Mr. Glen he’s definitely the person you said helped Ms. Lubella right?’
“From what I know.”
“Then he’s a benefactor for us Karuwimans.” Chelsea lightly gathered her hands together and closed her eyes. She looked as if she was blessing the future path of the benefactor of Karuwiman. However her internal thoughts were completely different.
‘That’s the fucking bastard!’
The competition to pick the Karuwiman Saint had ended up absurdly and in vain. In the first place the main reason why Lubella became the Saint was that her ability was much greater than the other saint candidates. The other candidates had lasted only because Lubella’s naivety was holding her back. However Zich helped her grow and even handed her the enormous achievement of stopping Bellid’s evil conspiracy. From then on the possibility of other saint candidates becoming the Saint completely disappeared. As expected the Karuwiman Saint position went to Lubella but at a much faster rate than expected. However Chelsea could not admit her defeat.
Lubella was much better than her in terms of abilities and skills and she had always been the target of Chelsea’s jealousy. Chelsea could not possibly defeat Lubella in terms of abilities. For that reason Chelsea had tried to become the Karuwiman Saint. If she was able to grab the Saint position for herself and stood at a higher position than Lubella this would be definite evidence that she was better than Lubella. However even that goal had gone up in smoke. Moreover it didn’t seem like she would be able to properly stay in the church when she had bullied the present Saint in the past.
Even though Lubella hadn’t disclosed Chelsea’s bullying yet she could always open her mouth and expose her. Therefore Chelsea left the church and joined Glen’s party which was led by another Karuwiman Honorary Knight other than Zich.
‘If Lubella obtained the Saint position by gaining achievements I can do that as well.’
If she piled up achievements that were comparable to Lubella’s shook her political footing and brought Lubella down from her Saint position Chelsea would be able to become the new Saint. This way it was very fortunate that her fate intertwined with Glen Zenard.
‘Anyone can see that this person looks much more fitting to be a holy knight than that Zich guy.’ Chelsea had obsessively collected information about Zich after he helped Lubella. From her information she found out that Zich was different from the holy knight that people usually imagined. ‘If I expose the true personality of that man named Zich I’ll have an easier time dragging down Lubella since she received help from such trash.’
However the problem was that the achievements that Zich made were not just ordinary achievements. If Chelsea disclosed his personality without sufficient evidence it would easily be buried under his achievements. For that reason she also needed to make an achievement even greater than his.
‘If it’s this person it’ll be possible.’
Chelsea made a bright smile and smiled at Glen. He was a true hero who would be able to lift her to her rightful place.
