Chapter 825: Deep-Rooted Belief
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 825: Deep-Rooted Belief
Luagarne knew her age wasn't far behind the elf Sinar’s. At some point, she had simply stopped counting the years.
This was her fourth life. She divided her existence into four distinct chapters, categorized by what she had pursued in each.
Her previous life—the third—had been dedicated to protecting a charming woman. What might seem trivial to one person could be something another would sell their very soul to achieve. Without weighing the gravity of the task, she had devoted herself entirely to guarding the former Queen of Naurilia. While not every day had been joyful, it had been an interesting life in its own way.
Before that, she had once staked her life on purging cultists.
Even for a Frok, Luagarne was an unusual case. Normally, one did not repeat their life four times. She couldn't remember every detail of her past incarnations, so she chose to anchor her memory only to the major events.
One of those events was the appearance of the Salamander.
Cultists.
She didn't know the specifics of how the Salamander had been summoned back then, but she knew the cultists had sacrificed hundreds of believers to make it happen. The memories of that era were beginning to resurface with vivid clarity.
It stings.
The sun was a scorching orb, drying up every last drop of moisture. Before she knew it, the temperature had spiked, and all dampness had vanished from the air. Though the humidity was low, the heat felt as if it were tightening, twisting, and searing her flesh. It felt like being trapped inside a heated iron pot.
Being a Frok, she was highly sensitive to such environmental shifts.
“Isn't it a bit hot today?”
Such complaints were common among the passing soldiers. Though sweat wasn't pouring down, the sun was excessively fierce. Usually, standing in the shade would bring some relief, but today, a hot wind blew from every direction.
When Luagarne arrived at the training ground reserved for the knights, she saw a man she had briefly glimpsed in the past standing there blankly. Beside him stood an adjutant from the Remsault Unit, and next to the adjutant was Finn, the captain of the Pen-Hanil Rangers.
“What did you say?”
Rem, who had arrived before her, asked while picking his ear. His adjutant replied immediately.
“Some fireball is wandering around. What’s the call? Should we beat it to a pulp?”
It was a response typical of Rem's men.
“No, didn't you say a Salamander is waking up deep inside?” the man next to him spoke up.
“While we haven't confirmed it with our own eyes, we have found some very dangerous traces,” Finn concluded.
“No, before that, what did you say?” Rem asked again.
“...Sir Encrid told me to pass on that he was heading in first,” Garret answered.
As if he hadn't even heard the news about the Salamander, Rem focused solely on the message Encrid had left.
“Oho, interesting. I'm heading in first, too. Catch up when you can!”
And with that, Rem dashed off.
“Do you even know where you're going?” his adjutant shouted, chasing after him.
“You can guide me!”
“I don't know either!”
“We'll figure it out as we go. Unless you're a dumbass who can't even find a path!”
Luagarne quietly listened to the exchange. At a moment when anyone else would have panicked, she accelerated her thoughts.
Has a Salamander truly appeared?
It could be true, or it could be a mistake. Either way, they had to respond. Rem had already turned his back and run off, and Encrid was already deep within the Pen-Hanil Mountains.
At the end of her instantaneous calculations, Luagarne spoke. Though it wasn't quite a frog's croak, her voice was remarkably loud.
“Countless flame monsters will be spawned in the surrounding area.”
Rem glanced back. He sensed a note of urgency in Luagarne's tone. Contrary to his appearance, Rem was highly intelligent. He read her concern immediately. If a horde of flame monsters came pouring out, who was going to stop them?
Just as there would be no one left to raise the cattle if everyone abandoned the countryside, they needed an asymmetric force to remain behind and hold the line.
“Don't worry. Do you think our boys are just statues? They'll fight well enough on their own.”
Luagarne had to admit he wasn't entirely wrong. Rem then kicked his adjutant's backside.
“Hurry up and run!”
His movements made it clear he couldn't bear the thought of arriving late and letting his commander have all the fun.
“Wait, is this really how we're doing this?” Garret muttered to himself.
Finn, however, was not flustered. She had expected this to some extent.
They aren't called the Mad Knights for nothing, she thought.
Luagarne briefly recalled what had happened when the fire-breathing monster lizards had been active in the past. The first problem had been the followers—a group formed by a splinter faction of the Demon Realm Holy Land Cult. They had committed unspeakable acts of madness. They burned crops, burned cities, and burned people. They spared no one, from newborn infants to the elderly, claiming they were offering them all as sacrifices.
Did they say they wanted to build a temple of flame?
They claimed the Salamander was a god, and since the god's wrath had descended upon the land, they had to worship it. Ironically, the majority of those followers had ended up swept away and turned to ash by the very flames the Salamander unleashed.
“O God! Appease your wra—”
Before they could even finish their prayers, the flames had engulfed the land.
Even after all that, followers still remain.
Though few in number now, a fanatical cult that worshiped the Salamander as a god still existed. They were madmen who wouldn't hesitate to burn people alive.
The second problem was the sheer authority of the demon-class monster itself.
It vomits out living monsters.
In other words, it could endlessly generate monsters made of pure flame. Even the forbidden spell known as Walking Fire was nothing more than a poor imitation of this monster's authority. These two problems had multiplied the disaster caused by the monster several times over. That was how the tragedy of the Salamander had begun.
And the present was no different from the past.
These are the warning signs.
Flame monsters and demonic beasts.
Next will be the flame giants.
After that, all kinds of monsters made of fire would pour out.
“Who went where?”
While Luagarne was lost in thought, Ragna arrived. He had his blonde hair tied up—likely Anne's handiwork—and asked nonchalantly.
“They went inside, saying they were going ahead. First Sir Encrid, then Sir Rem,” Garret briefed him.
Finn saw no need to add anything more. Ragna took a step forward, leaving behind a single remark.
“You shouldn't call Rem 'Sir.' You should call him a bastard.”
To Ragna, his official title wasn't Sir Rem, but Rem the Bastard. He truly believed this.
Garret was left speechless. What is this crazy bastard even saying? He had always known the Mad Knights wasn't normal, but seeing them up close made it hard to adjust.
Finn, who had been watching Ragna, naturally stepped up to his side. She knew him well. He was someone who should absolutely never be left to wander alone. If they let him go here, he might end up resurfacing in the South later.
“I'll guide you,” Finn said.
Ragna tilted his head. “Is that really necessary?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
Finn followed him, giving Garret a look that told him to finish what he was doing. Garret didn't ask what his job was; it was obvious. He was to pass on the message to anyone else who arrived. A messenger. Even though he had retired after serving as a battalion commander...
Well, he could play the messenger a hundred, even a thousand times. That part didn't matter. The real problem was this: why did none of these bastards have any sense of crisis?
“Seriously, is this normal?” Garret muttered.
A Salamander was a threat far greater than most Demon Realms. It was a monster that had swallowed dozens of knights and roasted dozens of righteous mages to death. It was practically a natural disaster. Some even said that such catastrophes were the reason the number of knights on the continent had dwindled compared to previous eras. Some scholars believed that if not for these large-scale disasters, there would be twice as many knights today.
No matter how one looked at it, it was the advent of a calamity.
Is it really right to just charge in against something like that?
Garret's mind grew increasingly tangled. His constant muttering perfectly reflected his state of mind. On one hand, this was an order of knights considered to be among the kingdom's main forces, so perhaps this was the right move. On the other hand, he couldn't help but wonder if rushing in without any preparation was sheer madness.
“It's not.”
Luagarne, the Frok, said as she approached. Garret felt that this Frok was the only reasonable person left.
Right? It's not normal, is it? Garret's eyes pleaded for agreement.
“We need to come up with a plan. We should immediately send a messenger to the kingdom and summon the Red Cloak Knights as well.”
Garret was a former battalion commander. He knew how armies operated. In his common sense, a Salamander was like a meteor falling from the sky. It was a calamity. Even if you knew it was coming, you couldn't avoid it. Calling a knight a “calamity” was merely a metaphor.
But this was a literal calamity. When a dying star fell, no one in the vicinity could survive. The Salamander was that dying star.
“But if they can't stop it, no one can.”
Luagarne knew the hell that the fire monsters had created when the Salamander first appeared. She also knew the level of training and equipment of the current Border Guard Standing Army.
Rem was right. The Standing Army was not just a military in name only. It was a force built by Krais—that Krona monster who wouldn't waste a single copper coin—by pouring gold coins into military funding.
“Huh? Uh, well, I guess that makes sense too...” Garret said, his mind thoroughly muddled.
Just then, Sachsen arrived.
“Who came, and what's going on?”
The training ground was right in front of the quarters—the nest where the Mad Knights resided. It was a place they would naturally pass through.
“A Salamander inside...”
Garret's explanation this time was even more concise. Sachsen patted Garret on the shoulder, treating him like a veteran soldier.
“Good work.”
Sachsen treated his subordinates surprisingly well. If someone went through the trouble of coming all this way to report, it was only right to acknowledge their effort.
“Well, I did, but...”
While Garret muttered, Sachsen had already vanished. Anyone could tell something was happening deep inside without being told. Sachsen's sixth sense was already screaming warnings. Even without a guide, finding the destination wouldn't be difficult.
“Where did my fiancé go?”
Next, the elf appeared. Garret summarized the situation even more concisely than before.
“Suspected Salamander appearance inside the mountains. A portion of the order, led by Sir Encrid, has entered the range.”
The military habits he had forgotten during his time as a bard were returning—not from his days as a battalion commander, but from when he first joined the army as a small-unit commander.
“But why are you just standing here?”
Sinar recognized Garret's face. She remembered they had once been in the same unit. That was why she asked, but...
“Ah, that's...”
Garret stopped mid-sentence. There was no point in speaking when the elf didn't show the slightest interest and vanished in a flash. In an instant, the green eyes that had been looking at him were replaced by the back of a blonde head. Her small frame rapidly receded into the distance. Her strides were incredibly light and swift. In an instant, she cleared the training ground and dashed in a straight line toward the mountains.
“...I was a battalion commander once, you know,” Garret muttered, but those who followed treated him no differently.
“Thank you for your hard work, Brother Messenger,” an apostle of the God of War who resembled a bear beastman said as he brushed past him.
“Lady Lua, you know something?”
The member of the order who appeared next, Loford, quickly assessed the situation and looked for his role. While joining the fight inside was important...
“Some of the monsters will likely descend and spread fire to the surrounding area,” Luagarne said. They couldn't just stand by and let that happen.
Soon, the news reached Krais and Abnayor. Krais did not hesitate for a single second before issuing orders.
“Sound the emergency alarm for the Standing Army and form a defensive line. Do not spread the news to the city. If they try to evacuate now, they'll trample each other to death in the panic.”
Krais was resolute. He also had faith. The roots of his belief—that the gold coins he had spent would not go to waste—were incredibly deep and thick.