Chapter 26 - Desperation
Desperation
Translator : Elizabeth
Chapter 26. Desperation
The end of the North, a cursed land whose barrenness cannot be fully described in human language, the Permanent Frozen Soil.
There, 'Hireion', considered a sacred mountain closest to the sky by all continentals, stood tall like a giant of ice looking down on the world.
Average altitude 15,000m.
Considering the limit humans can dare to climb is barely 8~9,000m, this was the realm of gods and a sanctuary not allowing human footsteps.
The air was scarce and sharp like glass shards stabbing the lungs, and the blowing cutting wind felt like carving flesh alive.
The ground became an ice wall harder than steel as eternal snow accumulated for thousands of years hardened, and the snow powder covering it blocked vision, paralyzing even the sense of direction.
Whooooosh―!
Super-speed airflow tearing eardrums raged madly along the mountain range.
On the steep ridge of that hellish snowy mountain, 301 black dots were climbing tenaciously.
Elite Barbarian Warriors.
They possessed bodies and strength closer to beasts than humans, but in front of the overwhelming grandeur of Mother Nature, they were merely a swarm of ants.
At the head of the formation, Leorel Piace roared.
"Do not stop! Those who collapse here will become ice statues as is and be trapped here forever!"
His voice pierced through the fierce blizzard carried on Aura and stuck fiercely in the warriors' ears.
Leorel advanced silently, trampling snow that sank up to his thighs with every step.
In the bosoms of the warriors following behind his back, expensive magic items Leorel procured were forcibly holding onto the warriors' body temperatures.
Without the warmth emitted by heat stones and cloaks enchanted with wind protection magic, half of them would have already become cold corpses at the mountain entrance.
Only Leorel was bare-bodied.
Laughter leaked from his lips.
'Humans are truly insignificant beings.'
Leorel rather enjoyed the painful sensation of his airway freezing with every breath inhaled.
Who else could cause him pain.
Only Mother Nature could do it.
In front of overwhelming Mother Nature, he realized how insignificant his martial power praised as 'Master' was.
But that shabbiness paradoxically gave him enlightenment along with a strange sense of liberation.
He raised his head and looked to the side.
The peak reaching an altitude of 20,000m, 'Adamart', was looking down on Leorel arrogantly from beyond the clouds.
No, arrogance is just his illusion.
It was just there.
'Can you climb this place.'
The peak seemed to say so.
An untrodden sanctuary that hasn't allowed anyone's footsteps for thousands of years.
Looking at that fastidiously pure white scenery, Leorel fueled the flame of revenge in his heart even hotter.
The giant castle wall called Empire that he must destroy.
That felt just like that Adamart peak.
'I will cross over. I will trample all values you bastards hold sacred, and eventually stand at that apex watching your miserable downfall.'
How much more did they walk.
When the warriors' breathing reached the limit and some staggered seeing hallucinations, an unbelievable heterogeneous structure revealed itself in the middle of the snowy mountain.
A large shelter made by carving out a giant rock cave entirely.
A fortress-like shelter where 300 large personnel could enter and rest at once.
The funds poured to build such a facility in this barren wasteland were beyond imagination.
But it was a necessary, expensive bridgehead to cross the permanent frozen soil and hit the backs of the continent bastards.
"Everyone get inside! Rest!"
"Finally!!"
With Leorel's order, warriors rushed into the hut as if collapsing.
Inside, prepared magic braziers were emitting red light melting frozen bodies.
And there, a man wearing a bizarre white mask was waiting for them next to the brazier.
Leorel left the warriors behind and faced the masked man alone.
"Fufu, as expected amazing. Master. To cross Hireion leading 300 barbarians……. Since this land was formed, there has never been a history of such a large army stepping here."
The voice beyond the mask was terribly calm.
Leorel shook off the snow inside his shoes and said.
"Just haven't done it, nothing is impossible. Situation on Ashuhalt side?"
At Leorel's question, the masked man's eyes flashed like a snake.
"Heaven is helping. They say the Ashuhalt family is holding a large-scale banquet in this chaotic situation."
At those words, Leorel's one eyebrow twitched greatly.
"Kuh…. Kuhahaha. Banquet, huh. Set the board for them and they want to dance on it first. As expected, noble bastards are beyond saving from birth."
It was a curse containing terrible self-deprecation including himself.
"It is Veron Ashuhalt's move. Purpose to solidify scattered public sentiment and nobles' unity. But if he knew the variable called Master is crossing this mountain right now, he could never have afforded such leisure."
At the masked man's words, Leorel ground his teeth and answered.
"Trash with only facade and honor. Those bastards have no 'Desperation'. Stupid bastards thinking everything is theirs from birth. That arrogance will eventually become the blade aiming at their own necks. They will realize painfully now how expensive a price they have to pay for the peace enjoyed under the name of Ashuhalt."
The masked one seemed to be smiling.
"Internal response forces within the Duchy are ready. Now if Master's order drops, half of the North will be engulfed in flames. O 'Revolutionary'."
Leorel frowned.
"Do not call me by such a disgusting alias. I am just a person trying to reclaim what was stolen."
Despite Leorel's cold reaction, the masked man shrugged and acted leisurely.
"My heart though? What can I do when the things Master will accomplish stir my heart."
Leorel glared at the masked man.
An unidentified man who suddenly appeared and extended a hand 10 years ago when he started walking the path of revenge.
He hired numerous information brokers to dig up his past, but couldn't get a single piece of clue.
The guy just claimed to be Leorel's shadow saying 'I want to see your dream, the end of that destruction.'
Martial power was insignificant, but the information power and resourcefulness he possessed were the strongest weapons making Leorel's revenge a reality.
A guy whose inside was unknown enough to feel closer to a barbarian warrior who spent only 1 year together than this guy who spent 10 years together.
The masked man whispered in a low voice.
"It is tomorrow. When the banquet reaches its peak, the sky of the North will be dyed red."
"Understood. Withdraw."
"Rest well."
As the man disappeared seeping into darkness, Leorel approached the warriors gasping for breath roughly.
Seeing Leorel, a giant man called the Warrior Captain among them opened his mouth carefully.
"Chieftain, if we really cross this mountain, will glory come to us barbarians too? The price of defiling sacred mountain Hireion… won't lead us to destruction, right?"
Leorel chuckled and gripped the Warrior Captain's shoulder tightly.
He rather liked such naive barbarians.
"Glory of the sacred mountain? Is that more valuable than a piece of bread entering the mouth of your starving family right now? Honor is a luxury for the full. What we need is not specious glory, but a foundation where we will never starve again."
The Warrior Captain lowered his head.
Leorel's words were undeniable truth.
A piece of bread entering the family's mouth.
For that, they crossed this mountain.
"It is tomorrow. If only tomorrow passes, you don't have to fill your stomachs with frozen snow anymore. In a fertile land, all your families will be able to lie on warm beds and sleep fully fed. I promise on my neck."
At those words, mad vitality began to circulate in the warriors' eyes.
Leorel whispered low looking at the southern sky beyond the burning campfire.
"I will make you miserably full…… enough not to want to be robbed ever again."
The eye of the storm, colder than the severe cold of the North, was slowly and secretly moving toward the continent.
The night of Ashuhalt Duchy was outwardly peaceful.
But Danel's room was filled with taut tension ahead of the banquet.
He was running the final simulation pointing one by one at maps and documents spread messily on the desk.
'The biggest variable in the banquet the day after tomorrow is…… as expected, Julia Helmon.'
In his hand was an old document seized from Kelek's bosom.
Document clearly stamped with the seal of the Helmon family.
An item that would bring a nuclear bomb-level ripple to Northern politics the moment it is revealed.
A strange smile hung on Danel's lips.
Helmon family.
Ambitious people priding themselves as the second power in the North following Ashuhalt.
The family head Marquis Helmon was aiming for Ashuhalt's position vigilantly mobilizing top-tier Expert martial power and connections in central politics.
And the eldest daughter of that family, Julia Helmon, was the figure who most blatantly despised and checked Lady Lorraine.
'How should I throw this document to make it fun?'
Simply threatening to extort money is something low-level players do.
Or stupidly whistleblowing to gain Ashuhalt family's trust?
That was also the lowest of the low, perfect for getting sucked dry and discarded after getting caught in the family's dirty intrigue.
The sly face of Spio, a brother from past mercenary days, came to Danel's mind.
He was a man notorious for insight along with martial power in the mercenary corps.
"No, does Spio only worry about money every day?"
"This bastard, the bread entering your mouth all comes from my head, stupid brat."
"Still!!"
Spio sighed and said to Danel.
"Hey, Danel. Do you want to be an honorable knight, or a mercenary surviving tenaciously?"
On a drizzling rainy day, Spio asked tearing a chicken leg in an old tavern.
"Of course a mercenary. How can I become a knight?"
"You know your place, then listen well. A mercenary's real skill isn't swordplay or whatever. It's 'Negotiation', finding what the opponent is most desperate for, and selling the trash in my hand expensively for the price of that desperation."
"Eh, isn't that a swindler?"
Spio snorted.
"Hey you brat. A swindler pretends something nonexistent exists, and we throw existing cards at the optimal timing. Look, this request form. The reward the village chief gives is pennies, but if you go to the rich merchant in the next town who benefits most when this request succeeds and show the card? The reward jumps ten times."
"That is scamming?"
"Why is this scamming? It's because everyone except me lacks 'Desperation'. Hey, honestly if I don't do this shit, the bread entering your stomach decreases by two pieces?"
"……That, I'm thankful for."
"Right, bastard. Good for you, good for me, good for everyone. That is a mercenary's survival method, kiddo."
Danel recalled that despicable yet clear smile Spio showed back then.
'Right, negotiation. Julia Helmon wants information inside Ashuhalt right now, and at the same time fears her weakness being revealed more than death.'
Danel's eyes flashed.
Another ego feeling guilty conscience in his head tackled desperately, but Danel ignored it lightly snorting.
'Hey, that's not it. What I taught wasn't such an evil deed. Just did it to make money, you bastard.'
'Shut up. The skill I learned from Brother is exactly for times like this.'
'No, crazy bastard that is…….'
Auditory hallucination mixed with Spio's sigh seemed to be heard, but Danel rose from his seat as if satisfied without caring.
'You should have taught me well usually then.'