Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: The One Seeking Fate (3)
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4
Azel and Kairen had left the Tarantos Dukedom a mere fortnight ago, and they were already nearing their destination.
In just three days, they crossed the border between the Lurein Kingdom and the Dairan Kingdom. Four days after that, they traversed the Dairan Kingdom entirely and entered the Bizes Kingdom, where the land once known as the Karzark Marquisate lay.
Crossing two countries in a week would sound like a bad joke to anyone who heard it. But the two of them were covering about 300 kilometers in straight-line distance on the map each day.
Once in the Bizes Kingdom, they slowed down a bit. They knew the location of the Karzark Marquisate, but they needed preliminary investigations first. They listened to stories from elderly folks who had lived long lives and visited nobles who had collected historical texts to peruse their history books.
Since they had crossed the border without permission, they didn't reveal their true identities. But with their knight's emblems, a few well-placed lies were enough to earn them a night's stay as guests in noble households.
Kairen took the lead in this process. He had experience traveling the continent incognito in the past, so he was adept at posing as a noble traveler in disguise.
Kairen said,
"We should arrive by afternoon."
Having gathered that information, the two stopped at a village near the Karzark Marquisate. It wasn't very prosperous, likely due to its proximity to the land called the Demonic Realm, but it was sufficient for a proper bed to rest and a meal.
"I suppose so."
As the Karzark Marquisate drew nearer, Azel spoke less and less. Kairen found Azel's demeanor unfamiliar but left him be, as he wasn't causing any trouble.
The Karzark Marquisate was home soil to Azel. After ending the Dragon Emperor War, it was there he had rested his weary body and begun a new life...
Of course, that too had been a short and fleeting dream. Due to the curse laid by Dragon Demon King Atein, he had to leave that land after just two years and fall into slumber.
Even so, Azel wanted to see that land. Even knowing that 220 years had passed since he fell asleep, he wondered if anything remained to stir his memories, and how the descendants who inherited what he had built were faring.
"......"
That simple hope had already been shattered. There was nothing to gain from going there, but even so... he had to see it with his own eyes.
Azel silently gazed in the direction where he believed the Karzark Marquisate lay. The stories he had heard lately flashed through his mind.
'Great Darkness, huh...'
It was an event that cropped up no matter what aspect of this era one discussed.
The fall of the Karzark Marquisate had occurred toward the end of the Great Darkness. As the aftermath of the plague that claimed countless lives began to subside thanks to Sage Biyan's efforts, maddened dragons had overrun the land.
According to the records, thirteen dragons went berserk, attacking the Karzark Marquisate indiscriminately. And in their wake, an enormous horde of demonic beasts gathered as if entranced.
Even after Hero Azel Karzark's time, the Karzark Marquisate's forces had a reputation for strength. Their knights were highly skilled, they had many exceptional mages, and their soldiers were well-trained.
But even they were helpless before this disaster. The Karzark Marquisate was annihilated in an instant, and the demonic beasts surged beyond it.
The fortunate part was that the dragons did not join that horde. The Karzark Marquisate had fought a desperate battle, halving the number of rampaging dragons, and the survivors did not emerge from it.
The Bizes Kingdom's army, ravaged by the Great Darkness, suffered massive losses to the demonic beasts. The elders who told Azel their stories reminisced that it was a crisis when the kingdom nearly perished.
But in the end, they endured. They established fortresses along the border region designated as the Demonic Realm adjacent to the Karzark Marquisate. Much like the Lurein Kingdom's Western Border Fortress...
5
Naturally, the Karzark Marquisate was now a forbidden zone. The border guards maintained constant patrols in the area.
But Azel and Kairen evaded their eyes without any trouble. For those who had crossed borders clandestinely without a second thought, this was child's play.
Kairen muttered,
"It's not much different from when I was here before. Even the fortress is the same."
"When did you last come?"
"About thirty years ago? After crushing the Alliance of Darkness led by Dakhan."
"...Hm. I can feel the gap in our lifespans from that answer."
Come to think of it, Kairen was a living witness to the Great Darkness era. He had been Duke Tarantos back then too, so he knew how it had shaken society.
As they walked into the Karzark Marquisate, Azel asked—not out of true curiosity, but to distract his troubled mind.
"What was the Great Darkness like?"
"That time... everything was a total mess."
The plague that swept the entire continent was truly terrifying. Until Sage Biyan came up with a solution, no one had any countermeasures; if you were infected, isolation and waiting for death was the only option.
"No one could escape it."
Before dragons or dragon demons, famed knights or mages—everyone was helpless. Once infected, all they could do was await death.
"Of course, dragons, dragon demons, or knights had robust bodies and thus greater resistance to illness..."
But there were limits. Vitality would gradually wear away until they fell bedridden, and that was the end.
In fact, their existence accelerated the plague's spread. Their superior resistance meant it took longer to realize they were infected, and in the meantime, they mingled with people without caution, hastening the contagion.
Kairen continued,
"As I recall, the temples were incredibly arrogant before then. If I told my pre-Great Darkness self how humble the priests are now, he wouldn't believe it."
Until then, the temples held absolute authority. How proudly they boasted of healing diseases and wounds with the sacred knowledge and techniques bestowed by the gods.
But during the Great Darkness, they were utterly incompetent and powerless. They strutted out claiming they could handle such a trivial disease, only for countless priests to contract it and die. One almost wants to count them.
"That's why some call the Great Darkness the divine rod that struck humans who forgot their place and drowned in hubris. You hear it from priests now and then."
"Somehow, I doubt those who said that to Your Grace in person left with all their limbs intact."
"I'll leave that to your imagination."
Kairen chuckled and gazed into the distance.
"Anyway, it was a truly horrific era. Looking back, it's hard to believe it's over..."
One day a person was laughing and chatting; the next, they were gripped by illness and dying, while neighbors who liked them isolated them with monstrous stares. That was daily life. In the midst of an inescapable plague disaster, the humanity everyone took for granted crumbled, giving way to an endless chain of ugliness.
Azel said,
"...It sounds like war."
Even during the Dragon Emperor War, humanity was tested. Everyone was cornered, yet how many upheld the humanity and morals they so loudly claimed to possess?
Kairen gave a wry smile.
"I think the Great Darkness was more brutal than war. Because unlike war, there wasn't even an enemy to fight."
As values everyone trusted collapsed helplessly, the world sank into darkness. Everyone fought desperately, yet without knowing what or how to fight. They flailed to survive—or at least delay ruin.
Perhaps only one person in that era truly knew the 'enemy' and faced it squarely.
"Biyan knew. That he had to fight the plague itself."
"Did you meet him personally?"
"More than that—I cooperated a lot when he founded the Medical Association. He went around seeking support from influential nobles. That required a lot of political and financial backing."
"I see. Is that man still alive?"
"No. He's dead, probably."
"Hm? Why the assumption?"
"After the Medical Association was established and running smoothly, his whereabouts became mysterious. Maybe he got tired of all the political hassles..."
Biyan had already been middle-aged during the Great Darkness. If alive now, he'd be well over a hundred.
"I see."
Even as they conversed, they maintained a pace equivalent to a normal person sprinting at full tilt. Soon the scenery blurred by, until traces of human habitation came into view.
The ruins of what had once been a village lay there.
Everything was thoroughly destroyed; no intact structures remained. Trees and grass had grown amid the long-burned and collapsed buildings.
Suddenly, Azel muttered,
"Digol... was it?"
"Hm? What was that?"
"That's the name of this village."
Azel was seized by an indescribable emotion.
The time he had governed the Karzark Marquisate as lord was truly brief. But in the early days, as he toured the territory to establish himself, he came to know every corner.
Overlaid on the ruins, the scenery of long ago resurfaced in Azel's memory, pulling him back to distant yesteryears.
People cheering at the sight of him, children running about innocently...
Digol lay at the edge of the territory, serving as a gateway for those entering the Karzark Marquisate from other lands. It was fairly large and had boomed in population after the Dragon Emperor War, full of vitality.
"You..."
Kairen started to say something to Azel, who stood dazed, but stopped. Azel's face had twisted into something terrifyingly fierce, leaving him speechless.
Azel broke the heavy silence.
"Good timing. I was just looking for something to vent on..."
Monsters had begun to appear around them. Orcs commanding massive Blood Wolves the size of bulls.
It was only natural. This was land designated as the Demonic Realm, swarming with demonic beasts—that's why the Bizes Kingdom had abandoned reclaiming it. Azel and Kairen had been avoiding the monsters' eyes while scanning their surroundings on the way here.
"Grroo, fearless humans."
A clumsy, guttural voice rang out. One of the orcs approached, addressing the two.
"Perfect."
The moment Azel's gaze turned to him, the orc who had spoken flinched.
"Just to be sure, you're not approaching with some mild intent like wanting to talk, are you?"
In those blue eyes burned an inexpressible rage. Even this hardy, ferocious orc froze at the sight.
The orc raised his sword and bellowed,
"Attack!"
And then unfolded a massacre the likes of which they had never imagined since settling here.