A Week in the Cradle of Heroes
It had been a week since we arrived at the Cradle of Heroes. I hadn't done anything particularly special during that time. We'd sleep in our assigned rooms, wake up, eat breakfast, attend lectures on the continent's history and current political situation in the mornings, then spend the afternoons doing combat training.
Not that everything we learned was actually useful. The history lessons were such a mess I couldn't even figure out why we were bothering with them. Everything was told from the omniscient viewpoint of the Goddess Church, so biased and drenched in religious propaganda that it made me frown the entire time. I pretty much let it go in one ear and out the other.
I did pay pretty close attention to the current political situation, though. Which countries held power right now, what the demons were up to—stuff that actually felt necessary. I listened carefully to all of it.
"So where are you planning to go once our time here ends?"
"Not sure..."
When Kwon Soyeon asked, I set my spoon down and thought for a moment. Hero Candidates who had just arrived on the continent could stay at the Cradle of Heroes for free for one month. Once that month was up, we'd have to leave. Not alone, of course. Depending on what we'd shown during our time here, we'd choose from the offers we received.
"Yeah, even with plenty of offers, picking one isn't easy."
"Must be nice to have such luxurious problems, Senior."
When Kim Daekwon unnecessarily added his two cents to Kwon Soyeon's comment, I shot him a sharp glare. He quickly averted his eyes and shoveled food into his mouth. I'd been too lenient. During this week of morning classes and afternoon weapons training, I'd joked around and played along with them, and now the kids' discipline had completely fallen apart.
And the annoying part was that they had plenty of choices too. If they hadn't unlocked any talents it might be different, but anyone who'd opened even one talent performed differently in training, so they naturally drew attention. A lot of places were probably already making quiet moves behind the scenes.
No need to even mention my own situation.
I had to admit what was true. In just a week, people clearly sent by various factions had approached me multiple times, slipping me notes. They all said something like, "I'm from such-and-such organization—want to join us?"
"Still, Senior, you must have already decided on a country, right?"
"Well..."
Song Dayeong, who was munching on bread beside me, asked the question. I pondered it briefly. There were currently four countries left on the continent: the Castia Empire, the Kingdom of Caelum, the Kingdom of Terris, and the Kingdom of Gair. Every other nation had already been destroyed and wiped off the map.
The countries that remained had only survived because the Demon King hadn't launched an all-out war for roughly the past sixty years. It wasn't due to their own strength. Still, an empire was an empire—the Castia Empire clearly had real power. The other three kingdoms had only started frantically preparing for war after the front lines collapsed and other nations fell. The Castia Empire, on the other hand, had been fighting continuously since the Demon King's first rampage.
Thanks to that, their war capabilities were solid. But true to its name as an empire, their territory was vast. If I went there and got tossed around from one battlefield to another, I could end up dying young.
Seeing this makes me think joining a mercenary band isn't such a bad idea.
That side might leave something to be desired financially, but it guaranteed freedom.
"By the way, when's our first request supposed to come in?"
"No idea. They said we'd get results today."
Well, that was still a ways off. The request we might have to leave for tomorrow was far more important right now.
"Everyone, the request you've been waiting for has arrived."
Just as lunch was nearly over, Gilen came to find us and announced that the request had come in. Gilen was a cleric who worked at the Cradle of Heroes, handling our convenience and support. Bishop Silas, whom we'd seen on the first day, rarely showed himself unless it was something major due to his position.
"What kind of request is it, Gilen?"
At Park Yongwon's question, Gilen cleared his throat briefly before beginning his explanation.
"Ahem. There are two requests. One is the subjugation of a skeleton unit, the other is eliminating a group of goblins. They'll be carried out simultaneously by two teams. The teams are..."
Gilen read out the names of the team members who'd be going on the request together. Honestly, I wasn't thrilled with my teammates. Neither Song Dayeong nor Kwon Soyeon were on my team, and besides Kim Daekwon, the other two were from the opposing side as well.
The moment the teams were announced, both women looked at me with trembling eyes. But what could I do? It was already decided. Of course I'd prefer to go with them, but looking at how the members had been divided, it seemed no one else on my team had unlocked any talents. They had probably split us this way because it would be too difficult for either side to handle their task otherwise.
So I didn't have any particular complaints about the team composition itself. Still, the thought of working with these awkward strangers already made me tired.
"It seems Yoon Iseo and Kim Daekwon will serve as the team leaders."
I nodded, swallowing a sigh. Well, you can't only do things you like. It was just awkwardness, not like they were particularly difficult people.
"Since both of you have agreed, we'll proceed like this. Please prepare immediately. Time is of the essence."
"Wait! Where are we going?"
"Ah! My mistake. Kim Daekwon's team will handle the goblin group, while Yoon Iseo's team is in charge of the skeleton unit!"
Just hearing the name "skeleton" gave me a pretty good idea of what we'd be facing. Moving bones, basically. The difficulty was supposedly similar to goblins, so I wasn't too worried. What concerned me more was leaving the Cradle and facing the real world outside.
There were many ways to infiltrate the Demon King's army, but most requests that came to the Church originated from a phenomenon called spatial distortion causing monster transference. It supposedly occurred when Demonic Energy suddenly condensed excessively in one place. Because of this phenomenon, demons or monsters would occasionally get caught up in it and drop near villages. The villages would then contact the Church for help.
Not just anyone who asked for help received it, of course. The Church wasn't running a charity, so they'd only send people after receiving a donation. They even installed goddess statues around noble territories to prevent these distortion phenomena from occurring.
Everything comes down to money here too.
Because of this system, villages without money couldn't ask for help in the first place. They either fled or died on the spot. Those who fled had no way to make a living, so they inevitably turned to banditry. To break this vicious cycle, the nobles of each territory needed to handle their own domains' problems. But if they'd actually cared about such things, these problems wouldn't have arisen in the first place.
I pulled my sword from the bandit's chest with a wet sound, shook the blood off the blade, and scanned the surroundings. This wasn't my first time killing someone, so I wasn't particularly shocked. But the others were different. Some stared blankly at the blood on their hands with dazed eyes, while others were sobbing loudly.
Telling them anything seemed like too much effort, so I left them to sort themselves out. They'd probably overcome it on their own eventually. Instead, I called over the guide who had been hiding in the corner.
"Y-you called, Hero Candidate, sir!"
The guide seemed much more polite now than before we'd killed the bandits, but that wasn't important.
"Are there usually this many bandits around here?"
It had only been a single day since we'd left the Cradle of Heroes. Even to me, who still didn't know this world well, this area should still be within the Cradle's sphere of influence. It didn't make sense for bandits to appear here. The Cradle of Heroes wasn't some backwater town—it was a fairly large city. It didn't just handle Hero Candidates finishing their tutorials; it processed many matters related to the Goddess Church. Given its size, I'd assumed the surrounding area would be well-maintained. Apparently not.
"The world is such a harsh place these days that there are bandits everywhere you go. Mercenaries sometimes turn to banditry too, so you always have to be careful when traveling."
"This is fucking ridiculous."
Even if they tried to clean things up, it seemed they couldn't prevent new ones from constantly appearing. But if public order couldn't even be maintained within a day's travel... this was practically a lawless age. I couldn't understand how four countries were still standing.
I wouldn't be surprised if some sudden civil war broke out.
Just imagining it made me already sick of the Middle Ages. Or maybe I'd been sick of it from the moment I left the Cradle.
It would take three days to reach our destination. At first I'd thought they'd at least lend us horses or a carriage, but when I asked, they just scolded me about how they could possibly lend out something so expensive. That was probably when I realized this journey wasn't going to be easy.
"Everyone, stop moping and get up. We still have a long way to go."
They'd rested enough, so I got the team members ready to move out. I'd been worried someone might whine about not being able to continue, but the tutorial must have helped after all. They pulled themselves together and staggered to their feet.
"There definitely won't be any more bandits now! No matter how many there are, they know they have to share territory if they cluster together, so they don't build strongholds too close to each other!"
The guide's confident declaration made me nod. The reason was shitty, but the logic made sense. Of course, I didn't trust his words one hundred percent.
I forgot earlier because the situation had just ended.
When we'd set out, this guy had definitely claimed he knew a route where bandits wouldn't appear. Yet we'd encountered them after just one day of travel. It didn't seem intentional, but my trust in him had already plummeted.
I followed the guide at the front while quietly taking a cloth from my bag to wipe down my sword. I needed to be ready for battle at any time.