Chapter 56 - From Where?
From Where?
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Translator: Ruby
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: From Where?
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"Have you already forgotten me? Andrew! It's Andrew! Same Seven Knights Order! Don't you remember when I cut your sword?"
In the middle of a blood-splattering battlefield.
The image of Andrew pointing at himself with a bright smile remained in my memory for quite a long time.
That aside.
I did remember.
"Why are you here?"
Andrew, befitting his alias as the Knight of Scorching Heat, answered while scattering scorching heat slashes in all directions.
"Let's clean up here first and then talk. There's a survivors' shelter in the direction of that escape route over there!"
"Let's do that!"
If I were rampaging alone it would be one thing, but right now those knights were also my limbs.
I had no intention of losing a single one of them.
'And Andrew is trustworthy, at least.'
"Knight Commander Vincent!"
"Yes! Lord Rohan!"
"I'll stand at the very rear and block them! Evacuate the wounded troops first, and have the uninjured knights join forces with the reinforcements and move together!"
"Understood!"
I went back to the place farthest from the escape route and looked after those who had fallen behind.
And Diaz and Andrew followed beside me.
Pung! Pupupung!
Andrew's sword strikes, where scorching heat swept through with each and every blow, continuously sliced through the lower-rank vampires.
Andrew's fundamentals themselves were so solid that every attack was fierce.
Moreover, when scorching heat attacks were added to those slashes.
No matter how much they were vampires, they exploded the moment they were cut, so they died instantly without being able to endure.
Even though they were vampires who would recover again if only their neck or heart remained intact even when cut shallowly or receiving attacks that would be fatal from a human's perspective.
Once Andrew's authority of scorching heat mixed with his sword strikes, their survivability plummeted to nearly zero.
Segeok! Pupung! Shak! Pung!
Truly, those cut by Andrew's sword died one after another.
"Keeeeek!"
"Keureureureur...!"
The ones who still had reason remaining, unlike ghouls who were merely excited by the smell of blood, began to quietly avoid Andrew.
Looking at the atmosphere between Andrew and the vampires, it seemed they had already fought several battles before.
It was obvious enough for me to see that they clearly feared Andrew.
Thanks to that, attacks began to concentrate on Diaz and my side...
Of course, we weren't the type to be easily taken advantage of.
Diaz had also clearly improved in skill thanks to the recent training with me.
"Huaaaap!"
Seokduk! Seokduk!
There was no scorching heat like Andrew's, but Diaz also had an authority inherited from Leanoa.
The impact wasn't big so I sometimes forgot, but the effect was certain...
The health-proportional damage authority named [Merciless Attacker]!
"Kiiiiiii!"
"Keureueueu...!"
When even Diaz displayed overwhelming martial prowess, naturally the remaining forces now concentrated on my side...
I looked at them and grinned.
'Coming to me to avoid the kids with unique skills?'
Their judgment was wrong, very wrong.
Pajik...pajijik! Jjeojung! Jjeojeojeojeojeojung! Kwagwagagagang!
I scattered black lightning at full power.
Lightning streaks reminiscent of a heaven and earth storm swept past in front of me as if dancing.
After that.
A massive vampire mass grave was created in front of me.
Certainly, when three named-level humans with unique skills gathered.
That military power transcended imagination.
Even I hadn't expected the synergy to be this great.
Eventually, the vampires who still had many in number began to quietly retreat and create distance.
Andrew muttered softly beside me.
"Wow...lightning authority...insane..."
***
Diaz and I ran following Andrew.
A few lower-rank vampires appeared here and there along the way.
Chwaak!
But they couldn't stop the three of us.
The place we arrived at like that was...
A small shelter-like place on the city outskirts.
"Uuuuk..."
"Here! Help me a bit! Too much blood is coming out! Help me stop the bleeding!"
"Keuhuk...keuhuk..."
"Hoo...go peacefully..."
However, this place didn't feel like a shelter at all either.
It was closer to a small hell.
The wounded clenched their teeth to endure screams in case the vampires might hear them.
The number of deaths was increasing moment by moment.
In case even this place might be discovered by vampires, they couldn't even cry out loud when someone died.
Diaz and I continued walking past such people.
Because Andrew didn't stop.
Walking a bit more like that.
Where Andrew stopped was in front of a man.
"Sir Andrew? Why are you so late compared to the main force? I was shocked, thinking you had died."
Barbarian warrior.
He was a middle-aged man who fit that name like a glove, somewhat gorilla-like.
The weapon standing beside him was also an axe as big as an average person's torso, which further reinforced his brutal image.
He looked at Diaz and me who were behind Andrew and tilted his head.
"Who might these people be?"
"Ah! This is exactly that person I've been telling you about..."
Before Andrew's words could finish, the man struck his palm with his fist.
"Aha. That Lord Rohan?"
He said he'd been talking about it.
Since when exactly?
And what and how much had he said that he recognized it before the words even finished?
There were several questions, but I just let it pass for now.
"Hey! This is pleasant. I've heard much about you. I am Kason, the commander of this place."
Kason extended a palm as big as a pot lid.
I also reached out my hand and grasped his.
"I'm Rohan."
Kason's hand grasped mine.
'Wow. What kind of palm is this...'
It felt like touching a rock.
It was the first time I'd seen someone with this many calluses packed on the inside of their palm.
It probably meant he swung that giant axe that often.
"And this is Lady Diaz, Lord Rohan's adjutant."
Andrew also introduced Diaz.
"Pleased to meet you."
"Yes. I'm called Diaz."
It seemed all the key figures had gathered, so I asked Andrew.
"What's going on? It seems like we need an explanation."
"Ah. About that. At first, I started by chasing after you to have a sparring match with Lord Rohan, you know?"
"Chasing me? From where?"
"Of course from Straun Diocese."
"..."
Straun Diocese...wasn't that the very beginning?
He chased me from there?
But it took this long?...Why?
"But you see."
***
"I'm a bit directionally challenged."
"..."
"And also, no. Why do you move so fast? When I chase, they say you already left. Chase again and they say you departed. I thought I'd die. Really."
Was that...really my fault?
"From Straun, I happened to take the wrong road...anyway, going round and round, you know that Uncle Kraus in Siforeo? I heard from that uncle. That you went to Baltras Kingdom. So I chased after you. That's how I arrived here...and I saw huge smoke rising from outside the castle."
Andrew enthusiastically continued his explanation while describing the billowing smoke with hand gestures.
"It was rising up like that. Phew, something big must have happened. Maybe it's a fire! I should help! With that mindset, I entered. But what was this?"
Unexpectedly, Andrew continued the story quite tastefully.
"The fire wasn't the problem, but a war was happening inside. Mothers holding children, grandmothers trying to protect grandchildren. They were being massacred. Right before my eyes. The Seven Knights Order can't just overlook that."
Should I chime in?
"So I started saving people first. And it ended up like this. Actually, I've only been here for two days."
Making my worries meaningless, Andrew was the type who, even without someone chiming in, would say everything he had to say until the end on his own.
However, even after listening to everything, there was a somewhat insubstantial feeling that it wasn't particularly helpful.
As expected, I didn't like guys who were just handsome.
Kason, knowing that the exact situation wouldn't be grasped even after Andrew's words ended, cut in appropriately.
"This trouble happened only a week ago. I don't know if you know, but originally this Mollen Barony had a feeling of not mixing well with Baltras Kingdom."
I nodded.
"I heard it was a tribe that hadn't been merged with the kingdom for long."
"Oh. You know? That's right. We were warriors who had our own king and lived on this land. So even after becoming part of Baltras Kingdom, there were occasional frictions. Because the basic tendencies themselves were a bit different."
"That can happen."
"Of course, in truth, it wasn't merged that badly. The kingdom also recognized a degree of autonomy, and there was abundant support. Thanks to that, the people's quality of life also improved. However, even so, there have always been differences of opinion. The side that said we should become independent again, and the side that said we should maintain the current state. And that balance...was broken by Count Soleon."
As Count Soleon's name came up, I narrowed my eyes.
"Did he incite the independence faction?"
"No. The opposite. He incited the pro-faction. I was part of the independence faction that wanted the barony's independence, and I was the adjutant to Baron Mollen who was the tribal chief."
I tilted my head.
Why would he incite not the independence faction but the pro-faction...
"Count Soleon touched Baron Mollen who wanted to maintain the status quo."
"Was there something to make the pro-faction turn?"
"Because Baron Mollen was aiming for Baltras Kingdom's throne to begin with."
"...!"
"He intended to start a war from the beginning. A civil war! So I tried to just become independent instead. In our original form...just as our small country. But in the end...a sea of blood unfolded like this. I couldn't prevent anything. I barely saved these people. And even that's in this place that could collapse at any time."
Kason blamed himself and bowed his head deeply.
Andrew, who was watching that sight from the side, slightly changed the subject.
"How did Lord Rohan know to come here? The vampire bastards completely blocked off the castle so we couldn't even request rescue."
"The purpose of my coming here was to execute Count Soleon. But when I actually arrived, it was in this state."
"Aha..."
"Do you happen to know where Count Soleon is?"
"Well. Even here internally, the situation isn't sorted out...we'll need more reinforcements to suppress the situation and then search."
To that, I called Knight Commander Vincent.
"Yes. Did you call, Lord Rohan?"
"The follow-up unit that Count Gargent was personally leading and bringing—how much time will that take?"
"Probably at that marching speed...they'll arrive around when the sun sets tomorrow."
"Then we'll receive catapult attacks again in a dark situation."
"...That possibility seems high."
Our vanguard expedition, I was there so I blocked it.
In a normal case, if they received such a sudden catapult attack, half the unit would be annihilated and combat would begin.
That couldn't be allowed.
So I reached the conclusion that I needed to destroy the catapults.
"Before tomorrow night, we destroy all the catapults."
To that, Knight Commander Vincent nodded.
"If the sun rises, the lower-rank vampires will definitely be affected."
But.
Kason gave us a despairing answer.
"Inside this castle, there is no day."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
"Just as I said. The sun doesn't rise. This castle has become a place completely independent from the world we know. You can only enter. You can't leave...like a different dimension. If you go north, strangely enough, you end up entering from the south again."
Dimensional separation magic?
Something came to mind.
Kason sighed and continued speaking.
"The biggest problem is that I can't know what anything is at all. First, the situation needs to be grasped so we can establish countermeasures whether we do this or that...where and how to find out from..."
I cut off his words.
And provided the answer.
"The witch who separates dimensions. Ledeia."
At my answer, Knight Commander Vincent and Kason tilted their heads.
"It's a name I'm hearing for the first time."
"Ledeia? Who is that?"
However, Diaz and Andrew, who had at least been in the Holy Knights Order, opened their eyes wide.
"Certainly. That witch did exist."
"Wow...you figured it out in one shot?"
But soon Diaz and Andrew's faces froze.
"If it's that witch...there's no method..."
"This is serious. At this rate, we might never get out..."
Of course, my face still didn't freeze like that.
Diaz, who noticed that, asked.
"Don't tell me, Lord Rohan. Do you have a method?"
Sssshik.
"There is...a method."
I raised the corners of my mouth.
It was the moment when a veteran player's knowledge shined.