Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Barrier Stones Breached
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I don't think I'm going to die.
There are no mages in the Carrot Duchy.
Poverty from being ripped off left and right in wildly unfair trade deals has left the country without any magical infrastructure, and without infrastructure, talent just flows out to foreign lands.
Thanks to that, the Carrot Duchy doesn't even have teleportation portals that every other nation takes for granted. With no other means of transport, we had to spend a full two weeks rattling along in a carriage to reach the Fresia Mountains.
Ravi and Elfin, fresh out of the academy, had so much to talk about that their chatter never stopped for the entire journey. I ended up like a fifth wheel.
The main reason was Elfin's reluctance to talk to me, but solitude didn't bother me much at this point.
Just thinking about the upcoming scenarios from Holy Warrior Brayden NX and figuring out what actions would lead down which routes took up all my time anyway.
Whenever the carriage stopped for a break, I'd slip away to somewhere out of sight and diligently practice my swordsmanship, experimenting with ways to boost the output of Light Saber even further.
If this world truly followed the rules of Holy Warrior Brayden NX, then getting stronger would work the same way—no major issues there.
After two weeks on the road, we finally arrived near the Fresia Mountains, where towering peaks stretched out majestically on either side in a breathtaking natural vista.
"This is my first time seeing them in person, but they're way taller than I imagined... Ravi, you've been here plenty of times, right?"
Elfin's question drew a shake of the head from Ravi.
"I've come before, but never past the mid-layers. The monsters get insanely tough from the mid-layers up. And there's this rumor about some kind of barrier separating the lowlands from the mid-layers..."
The barrier rumor was true enough.
In the Fresia Mountains, the monster levels differ so drastically between the lowlands and mid-layers that the game system blocked players from entering mismatched areas until they'd progressed far enough. It was framed as a barrier making entry difficult.
Looks like things are similar in this real-world version.
"A barrier? That's a problem. If that's blocking us, investigating will be tough. Especially with gargoyles multiplying unnaturally already."
"Nah, entry shouldn't be an issue."
I cut off Elfin, who crossed her arms with a deeply displeased scowl, glaring daggers at me.
"What makes you so sure?"
"If it's not just a slight increase but a full-blown anomaly worth reporting, eyeballing it from the lowlands wouldn't cut it for confirmation.
Someone—probably from the Empire or wherever—must've climbed to the mid-layers or higher to check it out and report back. Which means there's a hole punched through the barrier into the mid-layers from some direction. Finding it is another matter, but yeah."
This situation was like an in-game event.
And during events like this, normally inaccessible areas open up temporarily. The locals here wouldn't know that, of course.
Elfin had no real comeback, so she kept her arms crossed, shot me one last glare, then averted her eyes.
"...For an Alvis."
"Surprised I'm coming off competent compared to academy days?"
"Nope."
In the meantime, the carriage reached our destination. The coachman carefully escorted Ravi down and bowed deeply.
"Please take care, Your Highness. If I had the strength, I'd guard you myself... At the very least, I'll stay here until your return to ensure a smooth trip home."
"No need. Head back to the Duchy for now. I'll handle our own way back."
"But Your Highness...!"
"Come on, go on back. Who knows how long this'll take? Hanging around the mountain foothills like this, you'll run into bandits."
Ravi spoke politely to everyone, but she dropped the formalities with her father or retainers.
The coachman tried desperately to change her mind but ultimately couldn't sway her stubbornness and had to head back first.
With the coachman sent off, we set our sights on the mid-layers of the Fresia Mountains and began our ascent.
The range was enormous, but the gargoyle outbreak had been pinpointed to this specific mountain along the Carrot Duchy-Andras Empire border, so we wouldn't lose our way.
Goblins popped up now and then, and very occasionally an orc...
"Out of the road—scram!"
Kurrrr—
Elfin, with her exceptional talent for manipulating earth and plants, gestured once, and roots, vines, or jagged clumps of hardened soil erupted from the ground, smashing the goblins to bits.
Her power was so overwhelming that neither Ravi nor I needed to lift a finger. Ravi let out an admiring gasp.
"Wow... Elfin's the real deal. Even in academy training, facing you made me sigh first thing. And you're just as unflappable in real combat."
"Says you. Facing you made me sigh. You're too strong and fast up close—such a pain."
The two praised each other's academy prowess, their chat dragging on until I cut in to move things along.
"We both know you're both strong, so let's pick up the pace. And the sighs when you faced each other? Probably 'cause Brayden never showed up as your opponent, right?"
As if I couldn't read you two.
I'd seen you both thrilled at the chance to pair up with that guy even once more.
Hitting the nail on the head, they both flinched and turned their ire on me.
"Alvis...? Peek into a lady's heart like that, and even mild-mannered me gets mad, you know? Just three hits?"
"Who needs to ask? Let's bury him right here."
After that, I took punches from Ravi and vine lashes from Elfin, but inwardly, I smirked in satisfaction.
'Provoked them, and no backlash damage. Confirmed—these defeated heroines need to stay by my side.'
Maybe compensation for that heroine abandonment ending in Loveholic that pissed me off?
Excluding Celine, who's tied to Brayden, if I could claim Ravi, Elfin, and even absent Lenis, any man would be thrilled.
How to win their hearts was another issue, and so was losing points from needling them and getting thrashed, but still.
"Cough... Th-that all...? Who knows what we'll run into during the investigation, and you two are weakening your own forces."
"You deserved it."
"What 'force'? A slacker like you who's never trained properly."
"Damn it, treating me like this—I'll flatten your nose one day, Elfin, you... Huh?"
I spotted something odd ahead and asked Ravi.
"Hey, how far are we from the mid-layers?"
"Close, but the forest is still this dense—not near the mid-layers yet."
"Then why's that guy here?"
Where my finger pointed stood a monster with stone-like skin, massive gray bat wings, a face blending goat and monkey features, and a pair of slightly curved horns on its head.
With razor-sharp claws on hands and feet, it flapped its wings while clutching an orc in one hand, tearing into it alive.
"A gargoyle...?!"
"Impossible! Still lowlands, and in broad daylight—how?!"
"Krrrargh...!"
Sensing us, the gargoyle tossed aside the limp orc corpse and assumed attack stance, its mouth smeared with blood.
The game had monster surge events, but they never strayed outside their zones like this.
One irregularity piling on another, I activated Eye that Pierces Truth.
As the skill triggered, illusions of hooded figures appeared around the gargoyle's location, moving even higher up.
Obviously suspicious, they were heading upward from there.
These illusions showed past events at this spot.
I couldn't tell how far back, but they clearly held the key to this mess.
"Ravi! Elfin! Handle that guy! Got something to check!"
"Huh?!"
"Hey! You ditching us to run?!"
Ignoring Elfin's shout, I charged straight at the gargoyle.
As it raised an arm to strike, vines burst from the earth to assail it, and Ravi dashed forward at the same time.
"Thanks!"
"Alvis, you bastard!!!"
Thinking I'd abandoned them, Elfin bellowed in rage behind me as I pursued the illusion's path up the mountain.
Nearing the skill's end, I realized where they'd gone.
'No way—barrier stones?'
Scattered somewhere in the lowlands were barrier stones maintaining the divide to the mid-layers.
Finding them in this vast range would be like a needle in a haystack, but the illusions knew exactly where and moved with purpose.
The visions showed them magically attacking something on the ground just as the skill expired.
Arriving at their spot, I saw a diamond-shaped stone etched with runes, shattered and lying in the dirt.
"Targeted the barrier stone precisely. These guys are behind the incident."
I triggered the second use of Eye that Pierces Truth.
But despite the effort, the visions vanished via teleportation right after destroying the stone—no further pursuit possible.
And then.
"Krrrargh...!"
"Kyaaak!"
Over ten gargoyles descended from above, landing before me.
Having lost the culprits' trail, I clicked my tongue and sized them up.
"Tch, too naive thinking it'd go easy in that shitty game's world."
I activated Light Saber, the skill from the Radiant Secret Tome.
They outnumbered me, but the thought of losing never crossed my mind.
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