Chapter 33
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 33: Saloon Central Plains Battle
The dim light just before dawn was dyeing the barracks tent subtly.
Iden opened his eyes first.
Because the sound of preparing for march was heard outside the barracks.
However.
At the strange warmth felt in sleep, the constant body temperature and soft weight transmitted from the left side, he turned his head slowly.
Erwin was there.
Curled up unconsciously in a shrimp sleeping posture, she was sticking to his side.
It seemed the firepower of the bonfire weakened overnight.
As cold air seeped in, she must have instinctively sought the warmest place.
Suu— suu—
Short golden hair was touching his shoulder, and breath brushed the collar thinly.
The face of the attendant or magic teacher that had been stiff was softened significantly drunk in sleep.
Iden tried to raise his body carefully not to make a sound.
At that moment.
"Umm."
Erwin's eyelashes trembled, and red pupils opened slowly.
Half-asleep eyes stared blankly at the empty air, then looked at Iden, then looked around again.
Time taken to recognize the situation was about 3 seconds.
That her hand is holding Iden's clothes hem slightly.
That her body is almost leaning against his side.
Erwin, recognizing that her face is touching his shoulder side.
"...."
The next moment, her face dyed red instantly.
Like a carrot, from ear tips to nape, it spread as if burning at once.
"!!"
Memory of tossing and turning all night came to mind like fragments.
Coldness seeping in due to weakened warmth of the bonfire, sleeping place tossed and turned unconsciously due to that, and settling in the place where warm warmth was felt at the end.
Heart started beating arbitrarily.
"—!"
Erwin, trying to raise her body hurriedly, tripped on her own foot, and the body losing balance floundered in the air then rolled off the bed as is.
Thud!
With a dull sound, she sat down on the floor.
"Ugh...!"
Pain of bumping her butt hard rushed in, but the heat on her face was more serious than that.
Sitting on the floor, Erwin touched her cheek with her hand.
Hot. Too hot.
"Th, that is... at night... tossing and turning like dozing, n, not sticking on purpose. In sleep I unknowingly—"
Words pouring out not knowing if it's excuse or explanation.
She was so out of mind she didn't know what she was saying herself.
Iden got off the bed silently and stood in front of her.
And reaching out a hand, he asked.
"Are you okay?"
For a moment, Erwin's gaze stayed on that hand.
She held his hand carefully.
Body temperature was transmitted.
It was the same warmth as last night.
Iden gave strength lightly and raised her up.
"F, fine."
Erwin's heart answering without being able to raise her head was still beating wildly.
"Must have been uncomfortable, sorry."
Erwin conveyed apology.
Thinking he might be uncomfortable, she intentionally stuck to the outer side of the bed widening the distance, but it seems this heartless body stuck to him instinctively(?).
Thinking it would be okay if careful while falling into light sleep was a miscalculation.
To that Erwin conveyed apology, but Iden's answer heard following made her heart run wild again.
"Thanks to you, it was good for me too not being cold."
"!"
Good.
The moment that one word stuck in her ear, Erwin's thinking stopped.
Face heated up as if exploding. Head became pure white.
"Th, that's a relief. I'll go get some water!"
Erwin, rising from the floor like a mullet soaring above water surface, leaves the barracks hurriedly.
She opened the barracks door almost kicking it and went outside.
Creaking steps.
Knees shook awkwardly unable to receive strength properly.
Cold air outside hit her face.
But.
Heat blooming deep in her chest didn't subside easily.
Erwin wrapped her face with both hands.
She shook her head vigorously.
Although she couldn't erase the subtle smile seeping into her mouth covered by both hands.
Good.
That word kept repeating and knocking on her heart.
**
"Vanguard, halt—!"
The march started from early morning finally stopped.
Saloon Central Plains was a land far from tranquility unlike its name.
Grey clouds lay low over the endlessly spread plains, and cold wind brushed grass leaves carrying war clouds.
Iden was positioned at a point somewhat distant from the front where Galliard stood along with Erwin.
Because the purpose of participating in this battle was not to establish merit, but to accumulate large-scale all-out war experience and simultaneously grasp Galliard's combat sense, judgment, and points exposed to danger.
Opposite the Central Plains, troops of Northern Anomalous Tribes were already lined up.
Shapes resembling humans yet twisted somewhere.
Deep blue-grey skin, shields and spears engraved with bizarre patterns, and battle cries mixed with beast cries were certainly creepy enough to cause goosebumps.
Galliard, mounted on a horse, raised the huge halberd that would have been his father's high and stepped forward to the front line.
Short cut white hair fluttered in the wind, and silver armor flashed receiving the light of the Central Plains.
"Listen everyone—! In the name of the North!"
Resounding voice rang the plains.
"Today, we will break their feet and cut their hands to dye this place with dirty blood, and crush the remaining heads to pile as a grave—!!"
Soldiers' shouts burst out as if exploding.
Sound of beating shields, sound of raising spears, thrill of shouts shaking the earth axis spread like waves.
Iden inhaled deeply.
He experienced small-scale skirmishes during mercenary days, but a battlefield of this scale was the first time.
Spectacle of thousands of troops shouting at once and soldiers filling the vast plains spread endlessly.
Iden's heart starts beating fast.
Strange beat felt along with tension.
'....'
Iden pulled up mana from deep within his dantian.
Summoning Arts is not simply a trick of fingertips.
It is one work taking the whole body as a circuit, and consciousness as a medium to connect with another world.
As mana started circulating like blood flow, vision became clear.
"Everyone, charge—!!"
With the signal of battle start, troops of both sides charged simultaneously.
Spectacle like two waves driving towards one boundary line.
Iden moved immediately behind them.
"—Multi-deployment."
Spreading both hands, he deployed multi-layered summoning circles in the empty air chain-reactively.
Starting from general-purpose 3rd system attack summoning circles, overlapping interlocked 2nd system defensive circles.
Each summoning circle is small, but dozens unfold simultaneously directing a scene like forming a kind of mana barrier.
Blue light patterns bloomed chain-reactively in the empty air.
Instant.
Blue beast-type monsters poured out from the summoning circles.
Shape similar to wolves, but eyes shine silver and mana traces form at toe tips.
Monsters roaming the battlefield freely with movements like stepping on transparent mana stairs in the empty air soon scattered forward forming a formation as if surrounding the Northern army's vanguard.
And collision with the charging Anomalous Tribe's vanguard.
Huge roar arose.
Beast-type summoned beasts received Anomalous Tribe's spears biting the flanks, and Northern soldiers dug into that gap collapsing the battle line.
Iden didn't stop.
Rushing towards the battlefield, he started burning remaining mana.
The core of this battle was 'preliminary'. No need to overdo it, but for those together here, he decided not to hesitate in testing his limits.
Crossing both hands gathering in front of heart, he spread them slowly.
Huge High-Rank Grade 1 Summoning Circle began to be engraved in space.
"—Del Finiore."
Ancient summoning formula that saved Emiline is chanted.
High-Rank Grade 1.
Abstruse structure where multi-layered sealing formula and price exchange formula are intricately tangled.
The summoning circle drawn in the battlefield sky wasn't a simple circle.
Triple rings, 12-angle geometric patterns arranged inside, crest containing darkness in the center.
Mana gathers swirling and tears the air apart.
Huge blue light summoning circle bloomed in the sky.
Surrounding soldiers swallowed breath for a moment.
Eventually the center of the summoning circle split.
What revealed itself slowly from that gap was a gigantic lancer.
Heavy giant body reaching 3 times human size and black horse carrying him are opening red eyes flashingly.
Plate armor covering the whole body was dark like night, and minute silver patterns were flowing on the surface.
Inside the helmet seemed empty, but the interior was full of darkness.
Huge lance held in one hand had length enough to pierce a dozen human soldiers.
Kuuung—!!
As the lancer descending from the summoning circle in the empty air landed on the Central Plains, the ground vibrated.
Just swinging the lance once, white air blast drove like a storm.
"Annihilate."
Summoner's short command.
Black horse ridden by the ancient lancer moved.
Blood-red eyes dyed in blood color draw a long line charging.
Soon.
Started digging into the Anomalous Tribe's center line.
As the lance was thrust with heavy air blast sound, air split and a red line was drawn.
Shields and bodies of Anomalous Tribes were pierced simultaneously.
Thick armor, shields were merely sheets of paper in front of the ancient lancer's lance.
With the sound of huge plates colliding, enemy lines split like waves.
Morale of Northern soldiers exploded.
"Kill them all—!"
"Summoner of the Dark Night opens the way!! Everyone charge—!"
Iden was standing in the middle of it.
As mana was consumed, vision became blurry little by little, but he clenched his teeth and maintained the summoning circle.
Del Finiore is not summoning a simple weapon.
It is a 'shredder' stirring the battlefield collapsing the enemy's center, and a devastating killing weapon serving the summoner's will.
As the ancient lancer swung the lance splitting enemy lines, and beast-type summoned beasts went crisscross between gaps, the Anomalous Tribe's formation shook noticeably.
Iden's chest heated up hotly.
He felt energy losing as mana in dantian emptied gradually, but the sensation that this is the battlefield and this is the place he stands fills up the empty place.
Amidst the dark lancer raging on Saloon Central Plains, the name Summonfield was being engraved in the battlefield air for the first time.
Of course.
"Hahaha—! Did you covet the North with only this much! Arrogant Anomalous Tribes!!"
Iden was also watching the appearance of one human, not even half the size of the ancient lancer, becoming a 'Berserker' wielding a huge halberd roaming the battlefield.
Whoosh!
Every time he splits enemy lines wielding the halberd, Anomalous Tribes scatter like fallen leaves.
Like pitiful beasts hit by a runaway locomotive.
Seeing that, Iden thought.
......What on earth happened in the original work that that Berserker died.