Chapter 24: Sir Roland
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 24: Sir Roland
“Kkieeek-!”
“Yikes.”
Hendricks, pressed against the wall by the entrance and peeking outside, quickly recoiled. Almost at the same time, rocks and rusty daggers came flying in from outside.
The goblins that had picked Jackson clean to the bone were looking up at us, enraged.
“Damn it. Good thing these bastards are stupid. Otherwise, they would've built ladders and stormed this place by now.”
Hendricks picked up one of the daggers and threw it back outside. I heard their screams, and their fury only intensified.
Roland, who had been watching, scowled.
“Stop your pointless provocations.”
“Ooh, how scary. What? You gonna kill me this time, too? Go on, try it. Don’t think we’ll go down without a fight. Even if you’re a great knight, we have the power to cripple you. If that happens, you won’t be getting out of here in one piece either!”
Hendricks shot back with a sneer. Roland’s hand went to the sword at his waist. Hendricks raised his loaded crossbow, and the other mercenaries drew their swords, stepping in front of him.
Roland’s martial prowess was masterful, but the four mercenaries, armed like knights, were no pushovers. Hendricks, a skilled crossbowman, was a threat he couldn’t ignore.
Silence fell, and a suffocating atmosphere descended. That was when I stepped between them.
“Is this really the time to be fighting amongst ourselves? Even if you’re going to fight, do it after we get out of this goddamn place.”
Roland took his hand off his sword. His eyes still held a hint of suspicion toward me.
Hendricks and the mercenaries lowered their weapons as well. Their sighs of relief showed just how tense they had been. It seemed they had no real intention of fighting.
They probably just intended to warn him not to try that again. Then again, the loyalty of mercenaries isn't worth much, is it?
“Sir Roland. What’s the plan now?”
“A frontal breakthrough seems unwise. It’s not that we can’t do it, but we don’t know what might be waiting behind them.”
If we used all our strength to break through the goblins, only to find a monster worse than them waiting on the other side, we would surely die.
“Then…”
Our gazes turned inward at the same time. The endless darkness felt like the gaping maw of a beast. We lit a torch, but it only illuminated a small area, leaving the darkness mostly untouched.
“It could be a dead end, couldn’t it?”
“But there’s also a chance it’s not. It’s better to check before rushing in blindly.”
“What do the experienced mercenaries think?”
“Tch. I hate to admit it, but that’s the right call.”
I nodded.
“Then it’s decided.”
We decided to march on. Into the darkness, not knowing what awaited us. As we were forming up before setting off, Roland spoke.
“Allen, you’ll have to take the lead again.”
“Hmm. Didn’t we try that at first, only to get surrounded because our breakthrough power was weak? That’s why you had to take the lead and clear the path.”
“The problem is that those goblins might follow us. Therefore, it’s only right that I guard the rear.”
We’d been resting for quite a while, but the goblins only shrieked without trying to climb up. No, they couldn’t. Claiming he needed to guard the rear against them was just an excuse.
His real goal was to be in a slightly safer position. Roland was becoming more and more blatant.
“Mmm…”
I put on an expression of someone being forced to do something they didn’t want to and took the lead. But only for a moment. Then, I smiled where no one could see. Roland would never know that I had wanted to be at the front.
“This looks like an artificially made passage.”
Hendricks, who was following right behind me, said as he shone his torch into a corner of the passage. The passage we were walking through was a perfect trapezoid, wider at the bottom.
It was just wide enough to touch the walls if you spread your arms, so we were moving in a single file line, like a human train.
Of course, I was at the front.
“And this protruding part looks like a place to put a candle.”
There were perfectly square protrusions on the wall, just big enough to hold a single candle.
“Does that mean we can assume it’s not a dead end?”
“There’s a good chance of that, wouldn’t you say?”
It was a glimmer of hope found in the endless darkness. The gloomy atmosphere lightened slightly.
But someone had to go and spoil the mood.
“Don’t let your guard down. A monster might hear your voices and come.”
It was Roland.
“What are you talking about? We’ve been walking for like thirty minutes, and we haven’t seen a single bug, let alone a monster.”
Roland’s words had no effect on the mercenaries, who were already at odds with him over Jackson. Hendricks smirked as if to say, ‘See?’ and looked back at his comrades, who all nodded.
Roland’s face twisted.
“You bastard. Are you really trying to start something?”
“You’re the one who started it, aren’t you?”
Roland and Hendricks glared at each other. It was as if sparks were flying where their gazes met. Our steps had come to a halt. I shook my head and stepped between the two.
“I know everyone’s on edge, but can you cut it out?”
“As long as no one starts anything, I have no intention of fighting.”
“Look who’s talking!”
I shook my head again and returned to the front. As we resumed walking, the mercenaries started talking again.
“This path is fucking long.”
“You’re telling me. I’d rather a monster show up at this point.”
“Bullshit. Don’t say that, you idiot. You’ll jinx us.”
Roland scowled in displeasure but didn’t reprimand them like before. However, the moment he deemed the danger to be gone, the mercenaries would surely pay the price.
The mercenaries weren’t stupid enough not to know that. I realized this when a small voice slipped through the noise they were making.
“How much do you trust Sir Roland? Ah, don’t look back.”
It was Hendricks’s whisper. Now I saw it. He had deliberately antagonized Roland to create an opportunity for a secret conversation. He must have sensed the subtle shift in the atmosphere between Roland and me and intended to use it.
Thanks to the noise from the mercenaries, Roland didn’t seem to hear Hendricks. I replied in a voice just loud enough for Hendricks to hear.
“Sir Roland and I are as close as friends. But why do you ask?”
“Hah, friends? I wonder if that bastard thinks the same way you do. Wasn’t he the one who pushed you into a death trap from the very beginning?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
I raised my voice slightly. I was acting, making Hendricks think I truly trusted Roland.
“Tsk, tsk, how can you be so naive? Don’t you get it yet? He could have saved Jackson, but he let him die. Why? Because he knew we’d get in the way when he tried to take the relic for himself…! You won’t be an exception to his schemes either.”
“Sir Roland would never do that.”
“Hah, don’t lie to yourself. If you truly had no doubts, you wouldn’t be having this secret conversation with me. Am I wrong?”
I fell silent for a moment. Hendricks didn’t press. The mercenaries continued to provide a smokescreen of noise, and Roland didn’t intervene.
After a suitable pause, I spoke.
“So, what are you proposing?”
“It’s simple. The moment he shows his true colors will surely come. When it does, we join forces and strike back.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s just a counterattack. Like you said, if Roland doesn’t try to kill us, then this agreement never happened.”
I paused for a moment before giving a slow nod. Pfft—Hendricks’s faint chuckle reached my ears. He seemed to think he’d played me perfectly, but we’ll see about that—
As soon as my conversation with Hendricks ended, the mercenaries fell silent. Silence descended once more, and only our footsteps echoed in the passage. But our voices weren’t the only thing the noise had been masking.
Pat. Pat. Pat.
A sound like someone walking barefoot, endlessly light, had drawn near without us noticing.
“Something’s here!”
It was just as Roland shouted. Near the middle of our line, at the bottom of the wall, the shadow in a recessed, shaded space suddenly expanded. The shadow swallowed a mercenary whole.
“Aargh!”
“Marco!”
“Shit, what the hell!”
The panicked group lowered their torches.
“It’s a goblin!”
A goblin was on top of the fallen Marco. Marco had dropped his sword, and the goblin was crawling up his body, aiming for his unprotected face.
“Marco!”
A nearby mercenary kicked the goblin with all his might. With a thud, the goblin slammed against the wall and collapsed. Its head seemed to have split open, as blood and a whitish brain matter oozed out.
“There’s more than one!”
There were several holes at the bottom of the walls, just big enough for a goblin to squeeze through. The reason we hadn’t noticed them was that the shadows cast by our torches had perfectly concealed them. It was clearly the result of an engineered design that took the position and effect of the torches into account.
“Kkieeek!”
Goblins poured out of the holes.
Having switched to the one-handed sword from my pack while we were resting, I cut down a leaping goblin with a diagonal slash. Immediately after, I swung the torch in my other hand widely to keep the other goblins at bay.
When one of them charged forward regardless, I sent it flying with another kick, taking it out of the fight.
“Kegh.”
I’d dealt with two in an instant, but there was no time for relief. Goblins were still pouring out of the holes on both walls.
A shadow starting from behind me stretched out long in front. A goblin was already lunging at my back. My body moved a step forward before I could even think, and I cut down the goblin in front of me.
Using the momentum, I twisted my body and thrust my sword into the spot where I had just been. A long, sharp pillar of shadow shot out from the shadow that had been about to swallow me.
“Fuuuck! Help me out back here!!”
The goblin ambush was concentrated on the rear. It was a trap designed to cut our formation in the middle and attack the most vulnerable part—the rear.
Roland must have thought the rear was the safest place, but ironically, the front was safer. In the end, Roland had helped me.
‘My master’s grace is as boundless as the sky.’
I will be sure to repay him. But not now, of course. Roland still had a role to play.
“Stay calm! There aren’t that many of them!”
I made my presence known and helped the mercenaries. The goblin ambush had been effective, but by the time the fight was over, they were all cold corpses. The fundamental difference in our skills was just too great.
Still, it wasn’t without meaning.
“Marco—!”
Marco, who had fallen earlier, still hadn’t gotten up. When we brought a torch closer, we saw a large pool of blood and Marco trying to staunch the bleeding in his leg with a ragged cloth.
“Move that for a second. This… the wound is deep…?”
Washing away the blood revealed a deep gash. Of all places, it was right where his Achilles tendon was. Marco quickly tore a piece of his clothing and wrapped the wound. Then he pushed himself up, using the wall for support.
“Don’t make a fuss! It’s nothing.”
Despite his words, Marco couldn’t walk without leaning on the wall.
We, who had gathered in a circle, exchanged glances. A sudden thought occurred to all of us: In a situation where another ambush like the last one could happen at any moment, could we afford to look after an injured man?
Sensing the strange atmosphere, Marco hurriedly raised his voice.
“Fuck! This is nothing! I got a worse injury than this when I fought a much bigger monster before!”
Dum. Dum. Dum.
The rough sound of drums began to echo again. The sound was coming through the holes in the wall where the goblins had emerged.
“We’re moving out.”
As if it had nothing to do with him, Roland, who had been standing a step away, set off without hesitation.
So much for his excuse about the rear being dangerous. Now that the rear had become genuinely dangerous, Roland calmly took the lead.
I swallowed a sneer and fell in behind Roland. I needed to whittle down the number of mercenaries bit by bit. I was the only one who needed to get out of this place alive.
Spurred by our movement, the mercenaries silently looked at Marco. Did he sense the ominous mood? Marco shouted furiously.
“Don’t worry! I can keep up!”
The mercenaries exchanged another glance, then silently quickened their pace and fell in behind me. Up ahead, Roland let out a sneer, mocking them. The mercenaries didn’t respond.
The drumming grew closer. Our pace quickened to match it.
“Hah… hah… hah.”
Naturally, Marco began to fall behind. His ragged breaths reached our ears, but no one looked back. It was as if everyone had gone deaf.
Only when the distance had grown so wide that his body was half-swallowed by the shadows did Marco speak.
“Hey, slow… slow down! I said, slow down!”
We didn’t stop. It was an unspoken agreement to abandon Marco, who was no longer a help but a clear hindrance.
Pfft—
Roland sneered once more.
Soon, Marco’s voice became mixed with sobs, and the darkness, not just the shadows, consumed him. Just as his faintly audible voice faded into nothing…
…a sound broke through the suffocating silence.
“Phhhrrrr—”
It sounded like a horse’s exhale. Without any command, we all pressed ourselves against the wall. The source of the sound was in a massive cavern beyond the end of the passage, which was now in sight. That creature was the very reason I had led the group here.
Hendricks, his face stiff, muttered in a low voice.
“A troll…!”