A Gate Closed Alone
The movement of his eyes, which had been casually rolling around out of mere curiosity, shifted to urgently searching for the source of the commotion.
His wide-open eyes clearly captured the gate near the city gates, spewing out monsters. That alone was reason enough to move.
“……Damn it!”
Even though it was a great distance, his eyes met Didi’s in passing.
Turning back and going down would be too late. Raven gritted his teeth and immediately leaped off the cliff. The height was dizzying enough that a normal person would shatter every bone, but it posed no problem for him.
“Hyung!”
[Guardian Spirit ??? has responded to the call.]
The black-haired, green-eyed man who materialized immediately caught Raven with steady hands before vanishing. Thanks to that, Raven landed safely on the ground, spat out the blood that had risen in his throat, and dashed forward. He slammed his knee into the head of a monster about to attack someone, then called the Guardian Spirit again.
“Take care of the people.”
Shraaak!!
As if proving his acceptance, the surrounding monsters were all sliced apart at once. After confirming that much, Raven moved toward the gate without even glancing around.
He passed the panicking crowd and Eckhart, who was holding Ray, his unwavering steps cutting straight through the raining blood and flesh. His strange green eyes, gleaming with a sharp aura, stared directly at the gate in a way anyone could recognize.
The sight of him running alone against the flow of evacuating people was so alien that Eckhart’s gaze was drawn to him for a moment. Soon snapping back to his senses, Eckhart urgently called out.
“……Captain! Don’t go in! The people in charge of the gate will be here soon! There’s no need to risk your life on a gamble!”
“……”
Did he really expect him to wait and see when “soon” would be?
Even as he listened, the gate was steadily emitting energy, trying to create another gate somewhere in this world.
So Raven gave no reply and stepped straight into the gate.
∗ ∗ ∗
Eckhart was flustered.
It was shocking enough that Raven had summoned what appeared to be a Guardian Spirit, and the current situation where that suspicious being was slicing through the occasional monsters like they were nothing was also shocking, but what truly sent him into panic was the fact that Raven had entered the gate.
“What the hell are you trying to do!”
Why on earth, what was he relying on to step in there alone! The gate personnel would arrive if they just waited a little!
“And your body isn’t even in good shape!”
On the way here, he had seen the stalker who called himself an assassin candidate glancing at Raven’s legs. There had also been the smell of blood that reached his nose whenever the man moved. Even the child Ray seemed to have noticed, so there was no way Eckhart could have missed it.
The captain—Raven—had injured his leg.
“And you still jumped into the gate in that state!”
Was he out of his mind!
What should he do?! Should he just wait for the gate personnel to arrive? What if the captain died before then?
The man was suspicious in many ways. All the stories from his past ended with him having killed the other party, and he was someone whose identity they hadn’t had time to build trust with since they’d only just met.
But the image of him rushing over without hesitation and the scent of blood that had brushed past lingered in his memory. Eckhart tore at his hair with the hand not holding Ray, then clicked his tongue and handed the child over to the soldier guarding the gate.
“?”
“I’ll be back in a moment, so please look after the child.”
“Huh? In this situation, what… Wait, ‘back’ where? The gate?!”
“Yes, yes. If it looks like I’ve died, just hand him over to his guardian. He should be inside the capital. The kid came to the capital to meet his guardian, after all.”
“Wai… Hey!!”
Ignoring the urgent voice calling after him, Eckhart headed toward the gate.
The Guardian Spirit sensed Eckhart’s presence but didn’t bother to stop him. After all, soon—
Thud!
“Ughack?!”
“……What?”
—the kid would come out.
Someone fell from above onto Eckhart, who had been about to jump into the gate. He skillfully stepped on the person’s chest, slid across the ground like he was riding a board, then checked who was beneath his feet and made a subtle expression.
“Why are you here?”
“C-Captain…?”
Black hair reaching down to his waist and unmistakable strange green eyes.
It was Raven. His appearance was so clean that it was hard to believe he was someone who had entered the gate alone and come back out. Relief and confusion tangled across Eckhart’s face.
‘It’s good that he came out safely, but……’
How had he come out so quickly?
Had he run away because he couldn’t handle it alone? Surely he hadn’t gotten hurt in that short time.
‘……Wait a second.’
If he had run away, didn’t that mean the gate was still open?!
While scanning Raven with his eyes to check for injuries, Eckhart froze, then quickly lifted his head to look behind Raven. The thought that leaving the still-open gate at his back meant he really wasn’t in his right mind vanished without a trace the moment he confirmed the gate had disappeared cleanly.
“What? Why is it gone.”
“What is.”
“The gate…… Don’t tell me you closed it?!”
“So what?”
“You crazy bastard!”
Closing a gate alone? And closing it this fast?
Raven’s irritated rebuke asking why he was cursing went unheard. Eckhart hurriedly raised his hands and grabbed Raven’s leg, which was still stepping on his chest. More precisely, he groped around the area he suspected was injured.
“Your injury, is your injury okay… No, you don’t have one?”
“……There isn’t one, so let go.”
“There isn’t one! Then your skills really are no joke! How has this not been known until now?!”
“I said let go.”
“Hah, now that I look, your leg muscles are no joke either!”
“……”
It was a situation he wouldn’t have believed if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. He had roughly known the captain’s skills were good, but he never imagined they were to this extent.
He could feel the leg muscles beneath his hand anew. Muscles as solid as stone, clearly honed through real combat.
‘Ordinary blades wouldn’t even pierce this.’
Even if someone somehow managed to stab him, it seemed unlikely they could pull the weapon back out with normal strength.
On the outside, he had only looked a little agile, and his build seemed more like a scholar’s than a warrior’s, yet he had been hiding muscles like this beneath his clothes.
‘This guy… I have to recruit him!’
He had closed a gate alone in front of everyone, and at incredible speed.
If someone with undeniable skill that even witnesses couldn’t refute joined the mercenary group, the guild wouldn’t easily disband them even if they only had two members. With this one person, he could extend the mercenary group’s survival.
With his jaw trembling, Eckhart looked at Raven and opened his mouth again.
“Captain, I’m speaking with truly, truly sincere intentions……”
“No.”
“Very, very seriously, I want to stake everything I have… well, maybe not everything, but right up to that point, and ask you……”
“I said no.”
“Please join the mercenary group!”
“……”
What did he take people’s words for?
And what had happened to all those stories about him killing good people?
Raven, who had been looking down at him with a pitiful gaze ever since Eckhart grabbed his leg and started acting foolish, quietly applied pressure with his foot.
“I refuse.”
“Kuh, cough! Captain, I can’t breathe…! And your strength is perfect for a mercenary… Kuhak!”
……It would probably be faster to just ignore him.
Raven pressed down once more to shut Eckhart’s mouth, then stepped back with a disgusted expression. The moment he moved, Eckhart shot upright as if to grab him, but the Guardian Spirit, who had approached at some point, firmly stepped on his chest again and pinned him down.
“Kuk! What the hell is this…!”
“……”
“……I-I’ll lie still.”
Judging from his dull gray eyes that looked as if the color had drained out, he seemed unable to see ahead, yet his gaze was directed precisely this way, which made him even more frightening.
Eckhart, who had been about to protest, spotted the Guardian Spirit’s rigidly set lips carrying killing intent and obediently folded his hands over his stomach. The Guardian Spirit, who had been silently looking down with a cold face, slowly lifted his foot as if in warning. Eckhart rolled his eyes while lying down, then soon began muttering quietly to himself.
After all, he had never said he would shut his mouth too.
There was no way he could easily give up on something that concerned the mercenary group’s survival.
“Still, Captain……”
“I’m not your captain.”
“It’s not anything else, it’s the captain’s seat. Are you really going to refuse? An opportunity like this might come only once in a lifetime……”
“That once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, give it to someone better later.”
“I don’t want to. If the captain won’t take it, then I will.”
“Then you take it.”
“I don’t want to. I’ll give it to the captain.”
“……Should I just knock him out……?”
Raven, who had reflexively voiced his inner thoughts because it was so absurd, let out a hollow laugh like a sigh.
He should ignore him, but strangely, it was hard to do so. Answers kept popping out before he could even think. Maybe it was because the guy was so excitable.
……Though he didn’t know why that excitable appearance carried such desperation. It wasn’t his duty to care.
‘More importantly… knock out, right, knock out……’
Since it had already come out of his mouth, carrying it out wouldn’t be bad either.
It bothered him a little that the position of temporary guardian who would deliver Ray to his protector would become vacant, but it seemed the man had already handed him over to the gatekeeper properly.
Just as Raven narrowed his eyes and sized up the other man, Eckhart, sensing the threat, raised both hands and shouted urgently.
“Y-You keep trying to use force, but I won’t go down easily! Even if I look like this, I’m called a prospective Fighter!”
Lying down with only both hands raised looked quite ridiculous, but Raven focused on something else. One eyebrow lifted slightly, as if he had heard an unexpected word.
“……You?”
This kid had already reached just before becoming a Fighter?
Well, his skills had seemed decent enough. Looking at him, if he did well, he might step into the realm of a Fighter before turning thirty.
“That’s a bit surprising, but……”
“Surprising? That’s hurtful—”
“With skills like that, why are you so fixated on me?”
There was no need for him to cling to Raven this much, was there?
“You could find someone else. Considering the name value and history that ‘Lofty’ possesses, along with the existence of a skilled captain, recruiting members shouldn’t be that difficult.”
If he kept promoting, someone would eventually join. No matter how faded it had become, the reputation of the Mercenary King Lofty wasn’t something that would disappear.
……Or so he had thought.
Eckhart’s eyes widened as if he had heard something astonishing. After a short silence, a self-deprecating mutter flowed out between them.
“It’s not just that it’s faded……”
“?”
“Well… no matter how urgent it is, I don’t want to bring in just anyone. Like you said, it’s the renowned ‘Lofty,’ after all.”
“……”
“In that sense, have you perhaps changed your mind about joining Lofty now……”
It was obvious he was hiding something, but that wasn’t important right now.
‘Looks like people have arrived, too.’
Raven let out a deep sigh after confirming that new gazes had been added among the shocked stares he had felt since coming out of the gate.
“Get up for now. How long are you planning to lie there.”
“I think my ribs are out of place……. When the Guardian Spirit stepped on me, something hurt a lot.”
“……”
“It would probably be fine if the captain became our captain……”
Raven approached silently and raised his foot. Eckhart yelped and scrambled upright.
“You’re heartless, Captain!”
“……In the capital.”
If he left him like this, he would start whining again.
He had already wasted a lot of time, and there was no reason to drag things out any longer. Besides, making a meaningless promise to someone who would forget anyway wasn’t that difficult.
So Raven opened his mouth and said something he rarely said.
“If your feelings haven’t changed even after I finish my business in the capital.”
And if he still remembered him even then.
“I can’t become a member or captain, but I’ll provide help equivalent to that.”
“!”
“Are we done now?”
Whether it was because he was lying to someone whose words and actions were transparent, because he had glimpsed the other’s desperation, or because it was the first proper lie he had told in ten years, meeting his eyes was difficult. Raven slightly turned his head.
Eckhart’s face, which had been blank as if trying to process what he had heard, gradually filled with joy. With an excited expression, he spread both arms wide and rushed at Raven as if he had forgotten his pain.
“I love you! Captain!”
“I’m not your captain. Get off.”
“Captain!”