Ending Maker Chapter 101
Ending Maker Chapter 101
Chapter 36 - Karaval
It was one month after the “incident” that had drawn Kang Jin-ho fully into Hero Legend 2 when Outboxer009 met Yellow Storm again.
'Finally found you.'
Actually, since he had been tracking her ever since that incident a month ago, it was less “found you” and more “finally met you.”
For some reason, Yellow Storm hadn't logged into Hero Legend 2 for nearly a week.
'A student? No, she must be a student.'
And a total brat at that.
He figured she probably couldn't log in because it was exam period.
Whatever the case, the important thing was that Yellow Storm had logged back in, and that Outboxer009 was now stronger than Yellow Storm.
'One month.'
Over the past month, Outboxer009 had poured every ounce of his ability into Hero Legend 2.
He crammed the game’s setting into his head, spent real money on it, and lived and breathed Hero Legend 2 during every waking hour.
Honestly, even by his own judgment it was a foolish, truly colossal waste of human resources, but he did it anyway.
He wanted to do it.
'It's strange.'
When he put a hand to his chest and thought about it, Outboxer009 was certainly a decent person, but that did not mean he had a pleasant personality.
He was what you'd call the type to hold a grudge.
But this time was on another level.
He had never gotten this absorbed in something over a single insult he'd overheard in passing.
'Fascinating.'
Yellow Storm.
You can be proud.
In the past ten years, only three people had ever made him this obsessed with a single thing.
Outboxer009, who had conjured up a thought that would have made his old comrades grimace and click their tongues, turned his attention forward again.
He smiled at the situation, which was exactly as expected.
"Aaaah!"
Yellow Storm collapsed under the fierce assault of the unique monster Outboxer009 had lured over.
[Help me! Help me!]
Outboxer009 smiled as he watched the help messages pop up one after another, then advanced.
He finished off the boss monster Yellow Storm had already worn down halfway, using the scrolls and poisoned dagger he had prepared in advance, then turned around with style.
And made eye contact with Yellow Storm.
Yellow Storm was dead in the game, a corpse, but seeing how she was frantically popping up help windows, she was clearly looking this way.
'She doesn't recognize me.'
It was a little disappointing, but it did not matter. Outboxer009 took out a Feather of Resurrection as if he were about to revive her. After keeping Yellow Storm in suspense for a while, he put the feather away again and said,
"You're absolute trash at this game."
Snap—
The sound of something breaking.
Of course, he didn't actually hear it. But Outboxer009 could tell.
The various messages popping up over Yellow Storm's corpse right then proved it.
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
"See you next time, you ugly noob."
Why did something like this feel so good?
Outboxer009 laughed with satisfaction and turned away, and message windows began popping up behind him again.
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
[Excessive profanity is subject to sanctions.]
[Hey, you baaad jerk!]
"Yeah, sure. You're freaking terrible at this game."
Outboxer009 waved without looking back and left like that, while Yellow Storm thrashed about and kept shouting something.
Never beautiful, truly messy—
that was the first meeting of the two as Yellow Storm remembered it.
* * *
And now.
Breathing in the fresh morning air, Yuder looked down at Cordelia, who was sound asleep.
The morning sun was rising, and nearly everyone around them was awake and preparing to depart, yet she alone was still traveling through dreamland.
Yuder quietly watched Cordelia's face as she babbled like a baby, as if she were talking in her sleep, then smiled faintly and leaned closer.
He gently shook her shoulder and spoke affectionately.
"Our princess, isn't it about time to wake up?"
Cordelia reacted to the soft voice.
It had already been over two months since she started traveling with Yuder.
Having heard Yuder's voice every morning, she had naturally come to act spoiled the moment she heard "our princess," just like Pavlov's dog salivating at the sound of a bell.
"Mmmm...... nooo...... I wanna sleep more...... Cordelia's gonna sleep more......."
True to form for someone terrible with mornings, Cordelia could not even open her eyes and only mumbled.
Yuder shook Cordelia's shoulder once more and said,
"Come on now, our princess has to get up, right? It's morning. Morning."
"Mmmm......."
Cordelia let out another groaning sound, and instead of pulling the blanket over her head, she flopped her arms about and continued speaking while still half in dreamland.
"Mmm...... gimme a piggyback, I'll sleep more on your back...... Cordelia's gonna be a kangaroo......."
That was as far as she got.
Normally, Cordelia would have thrown a tantrum until Yuder carried her on his back so she could doze as they traveled, or at least squeezed out a little more sleep, but this time was different.
Her eyes flew open in an instant.
'A gaze?!'
A gaze that flew in from behind her, sharp as a stab.
Cordelia’s instincts rang alarm bells like mad, snapping her awake enough to see it.
"Our...... prin.cess? Piggyback? Kangaroooo?"
One blonde beauty with her arms crossed, looking this way with a cold face.
Someone who loved Cordelia herself to pieces, but at the same time, her older sister.
Not her mom. Her older sister.
"Eee-yaaah!"
Cordelia let out a bizarre scream and sprang up from her spot, and Adelia's eyebrows twitched before she returned exactly what Cordelia had done to her yesterday.
"Hm-hmm, hm-hmm."
So that's how you two normally are.
You're quite used to being called princess, aren't you.
You get carried on his back so often that you ask for piggybacks even in your sleep, don't you?
"Hm-hmm, hm-hmm."
Under Adelia's lukewarm gaze, Cordelia floundered and eventually covered her face with both hands.
"N-no, I mean...... that's......."
The sight of the beautiful girl, red to the neck and curled up helplessly, was devastatingly cute. Everyone nearby stopped what they were doing and looked at Cordelia.
Naturally, Cordelia's involuntary cuteness only grew.
"Hm."
And one person.
Gale, who like everyone around him had finished preparing to depart and ended up looking toward Cordelia and Adelia, spoke without hiding his warm feelings.
"How adorable."
"She's lovely."
Yuder agreed with a pleased smile, and the brothers opened their mouths again at the same time.
"Lady Adelia is."
"Cordelia is."
The brothers turned to look at each other.
The first to speak was Yuder.
"No, Brother. Looking at that scene right now... what exactly is cute about Lady Adelia?"
He was so flustered that he ended up speaking more specifically than he meant to.
And Gale answered with composure, as befitting a brother ten years his senior.
"Is it not adorable how she teases her little sister and goes hm-hmm? I've thought this for a while, but Lady Adelia truly does resemble Count Chase."
"She really does."
This time, Yuder had no choice but to agree without argument.
"In any case, shouldn't you go rescue her soon?"
"I should."
Yuder grinned and, instead of popping up help messages, walked quickly toward Cordelia, who was floundering and looking for him.
And half an hour later.
Yuder, positioned in the middle of the Great Storm tribe's procession heading toward Gentle Snow Breeze's basin, glanced to the side.
Cordelia, who had put on Great Storm tribal attire to avoid standing out while the various northern tribes gathered, was walking with her lips poked out in a pout.
'Fascinating.'
As if her emotions were reflected in them, her rabbit ears were drooping too. And her rabbit tail as well, of course.
"Hey, Cordelia."
"What."
At the curt reply, Yuder leaned his face in slightly and whispered,
"Your legs hurt, right? Want a piggyback?"
Normally Cordelia would have happily climbed on, but this time was different. She scrunched up her face and smacked Yuder's upper arm.
"Get lost, you devil."
If she got on his back here, everyone would stare, wouldn't they?
Especially Adelia.
"Hey, you did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"Huh? Did what?"
"Don't play dumb. When you woke me up earlier, you deliberately went on about 'princess,' right?"
Because Yuder knew better than anyone in the world how she would react.
Hadn't he done it on purpose to mess with her?
"Come on, what kind of person do you take me for?"
"A con man and a bad guy? A beast? A thief?"
"No, even if the first one's fair, the further you go, the more it sounds like you're just throwing out random words."
"So you admit the first one."
"Hey, Miss Cordelia?"
"Whatever. You put me in an awkward spot, that’s all."
"Mmm...... sorry about that. As an apology, want a piggyback?"
"No, you devil. Stop tempting a good little lamb onto the path of evil."
Because even now, she could feel Adelia's sharp gaze boring into her from behind.
If she took one more step here, she'd immediately hear hm-hmm, hm-hmm.
"Well...... then it can't be helped."
As Yuder shrugged, Cordelia let her shoulders droop and said,
"Ughhh...... it was easier when it was just the two of us."
Because for about a third of their travel time, Cordelia had always ridden comfortably on Yuder's back or on a sled pulled by Yuder.
"Right, it was nice when it was just the two of us."
At Yuder's words, the innocent Cordelia nodded repeatedly.
And a little ahead of the two of them, Red Wind, who was riding in a large cart, hugged Rough Avalanche tightly and said,
"Rough Avalanche."
"Yes, Red Wind."
"Do you think I can do well?"
With the help of Yuder and Cordelia, she had been able to become friends with the phoenix, a powerful ancient spirit.
Of course, the reborn phoenix was practically a baby, so it couldn't yet wield the power of its prime, but a phoenix was still a phoenix.
Comparing pure firepower alone, Red Wind was now three times—no, at least five times stronger than before.
'Cordelia taught me a lot of things too.'
Despite being a mage, Cordelia had remarkably deep knowledge of spirit arts.
She had given detailed guidance on how Red Wind should fight and how to coordinate with the phoenix, and it fit her body so well it was uncanny.
'Yuder helped me a lot too.'
Where he had learned it was a mystery, but Yuder had executed Sun Song's fighting style—Sun Song being Karaval's opponent—almost perfectly.
Of course, since Red Wind had never met Sun Song in person, whether the fighting style Yuder showed was truly identical to Sun Song's was unknown, but Red Wind still trusted Yuder.
Yuder said it was real, so it must be real.
'Gale helped too.'
It was only for one day, but Gale had also helped.
Since Yuder was smaller than Sun Song, there were inevitably gaps even if he fully reproduced the fighting style, and Gale had filled in those gaps.
'Really amazing.'
How could someone imitate another person's fighting style like that?
Gale had reproduced Sun Song's fighting style almost as perfectly as Yuder, and Red Wind had been able to internalize a more practical feel for it.
And now.
Red Wind felt anxious.
It couldn't be helped.
This Karaval literally had the fate of the Wild Lands riding on it.
Red Wind was a young girl.
The most responsibility she had ever taken on was looking after the horses raised at home, so her experience was lacking.
For a girl like her, Karaval was too heavy a burden.
No matter how hard she trained, every morning when she opened her eyes, her whole body felt crushed by fear.
'What if I can't win?'
If she lost.
And because of that, if the Blade Song tribe became the head of the eastern alliance.
Of course, even if the Blade Song tribe became the head of the alliance, the Great Storm tribe wouldn't suddenly be annihilated.
This was a gathering of the east to liberate the west, which had been occupied by demon worshippers.
Win or lose, the Great Storm tribe and the Blade Song tribe were allies, not enemies.
But even so.
"Red Wind."
"Yes, Rough Avalanche."
"Don't worry. It will go well."
"Do you...... really think so?"
"Yes, trust me. And trust those two as well."
"Cordelia and Yuder?"
"Yes. Didn't those two train you? I hate to admit it, but they're monsters. Remarkable ones. I can understand why the Golden Dragon King acknowledged outsiders—people not even from the Wild Lands—as guardians."
If Yuder and Cordelia hadn't come, Rough Avalanche himself would have been corrupted along with the sanctuary and become a monster.
Gentle Snow Breeze would have become a mad monster as well, and Bladebeak Canyon would have become a land of demons.
Blue Beard's holy ground would have been stolen by demons too.
The two of them had prevented all of it.
That was why Rough Avalanche acknowledged them.
"Even if you can't believe in yourself...... you can believe in those two, right?"
"Yes, I believe in them."
Because they were the two who had saved her from the auction house.
"It’s only a stopgap. In the end, you have to believe in yourself. But if that’s difficult right now... trust those two. You know them, too. If you were lacking, they’d still be putting you through the wringer somehow."
"That's true."
Because the two of them had been truly strict during training.
As a girlish smile spread across Red Wind's face, Rough Avalanche's expression turned pleased and he continued.
"It's your first time going to Gentle Snow Breeze's land, right?"
"Yes, it's my first time."
"Then you’ll see something truly wonderful. A broad field spreads out before the basin. The waves of green grass swaying in the wind are a magnificent sight."
"Wow, really?"
"Really and truly."
A fresh green field not covered in snow.
It wasn't far now.
It should come into view soon.
But.
"What?"
Why couldn’t he see it?
Why was there a vast burn scar where the field used to be? Where had the field gone? Why did a collapsed rocky mountain keep coming to mind?
What had happened?
What had—
"No way."
Rough Avalanche's head turned. Red Wind also looked at the same spot, as if they had made a promise.
And flinch.
Cordelia, who had instinctively caught the two's gazes, started.
She pretended to be distracted, as if avoiding Rough Avalanche and Red Wind's gazes, but it was no use.
[Come here for a moment, won't you?]
Rough Avalanche's voice sounded in her head, and Cordelia tugged on Yuder's arm.
"Tch, no helping it."
Yuder stepped forward as if to hide Cordelia and faced Rough Avalanche, but Rough Avalanche looked past Yuder at Cordelia.
He kept shooting demanding looks at Cordelia, who was far kinder, more honest, and more innocent than Yuder, silently demanding an explanation.
"Uh...... I mean......."
"I mean."
"So, the field......."
"The field?"
"It, it was there, and then it wasn't."
What kind of nonsense was that.
Instead of continuing, Cordelia yanked on Yuder's arm, and Yuder launched into his own explanation.
* * *
"Those two are gods of destruction. Gods of destruction."
Just as Rough Avalanche let slip words from the bottom of his heart, the Great Storm tribe's procession came to a complete stop.
Because they had reached the entrance to Gentle Snow Breeze's basin.
"We welcome the Great Storm tribe!"
When Fine Eyes and Clear Eyes, the grand shamans of the Gentle Snow Breeze Tribe, shouted together, people gathered from all around.
Most of them were Gentle Snow Breeze tribe members who had gathered to welcome them, but among them were also chieftains of other tribes who had come from afar for this Karaval.
"Rough Avalanche."
"Gentle Snow Breeze, it's been a while."
Rough Avalanche hopped down from the cart and ran on all fours to Gentle Snow Breeze, and Gentle Snow Breeze hugged Rough Avalanche tightly.
"You've gotten much cuter."
"It just sort of happened."
"You’re as dependable as ever. Having you here puts my heart at ease. Thank you for coming."
Gentle Snow Breeze smiled brightly, released Rough Avalanche from her embrace, and then faced Red Gale, the chieftain of the Great Storm tribe.
"Red Gale greets Gentle Snow Breeze."
"It's good to see you, Red Gale. I welcome you and the Great Storm tribe's visit."
Gentle Snow Breeze's friendly attitude deeply moved not only Red Gale but the entire Great Storm tribe.
She looked like a small girl, but she was clearly a being beyond humanity—one of the Wild Gods worshipped by those who dwelled in the Wild Lands.
"Now, let's go inside first. You'll need to recover from the journey."
It was the moment Gentle Snow Breeze finished speaking.
Rough Avalanche suddenly turned around, and so did Cordelia, whose instincts were arguably the sharpest of anyone present.
It wasn't visible yet.
No sound could be heard either.
But a moment later.
Footsteps could be heard.
Vibrations carried from afar shook the ground, and the sound of a great horn rode the wind.
"Blade Song."
A warlike warrior tribe that had clashed with the northern ravens time and again.
And the one who led them.
With Red Gale ill, it was no exaggeration to call him the strongest warrior in the east—the chieftain of the Blade Song tribe.
"Nine Blades."
And his son, Sun Song, the participant in Karaval.
They advanced beneath several large, splendid banners, singing loudly and beating drums as they approached.
It was half a day before the start of Karaval.