The Unyielding Shield
The blade scraped against the ground, letting out a low groan.
Once sharp and grinding, it had lost all its value, reduced to nothing but scrap metal.
Soldrec let out a hollow laugh as he watched Roan discard his only countermeasure with his own hands.
"What is this? Giving up? If you don't strike back, you won't stand a chance."
He shrugged, as if generously granting his opponent a brief moment to breathe.
It was the kind of leisurely banter that had no place in the middle of a life-and-death struggle.
In other words, it meant he did not view Roan or his companions as any real threat.
"There's no need to strike back," Roan replied, completely unbothered.
He didn't care.
He had completely cleared away the lingering doubts of his past life that had once made him hesitate.
His posture shifted, locking into place.
His feet planted themselves firmly on the earth once more.
As if responding to his iron will, the shattered shield mended itself, returning to its original form.
"As long as I keep blocking, this will all resolve itself anyway."
"...Resolve itself? Are you saying the people you're protecting are actually capable of that?"
"Of course!"
Roan didn't launch into a long-winded speech about how his comrades were the best, or babble on about magic and holy power.
"They're way stronger than you."
He simply threw out a casual provocation.
Snap.
A thick vein throbbed on Soldrec's forehead.
Because he possessed absolute confidence in his own skills, the taunt stung all the more.
"Is that so? Well, that works out perfectly. We can play among ourselves... while we let my royal guard handle those busy concentrating over there. Since you praise them so highly, they should have no trouble dealing with a few elite guards on their own, right?"
"You talk too much."
Roan curled his lips into a smirk and beckoned with his finger.
"Why split up? You and your royal guard can both come at me together."
Grit.
Following the throbbing vein, the sound of grinding teeth echoed.
I humored him a bit, and now the bastard doesn't know his place...
He must think he's some kind of big shot.
Enough. I'll just pierce his heart.
Silently, Soldrec leveled his spears.
The temperature plummeted, and the sheer, visible malice radiating from him was suffocating.
Whoosh!
He stopped talking entirely.
With his mouth shut tight, he lunged forward to impale the arrogant human before him.
But.
Clang! Screeech!
Thud! Creak...
Blocked.
Every single strike was blocked.
His spear technique, the surging wave of soldiers—all of it.
Everything was completely halted by that tiny shield and that single, small body.
"This... this makes no sense! What kind of cheap trick is this?!"
An explosion erupted.
No one answered.
Soldrec's fury whipped through the air, swelling to monstrous proportions.
"You useless trash! Hurry up and kill them! I'm holding down the shield bastard! What are you so afraid of? They have no army, no decent equipment!"
Grrr.
Now growling like a wild beast, he charged once more.
Flashes of light erupted repeatedly.
Soldrec's movements were so fast they left only afterimages.
Yet, amidst the sky-shaking clashes, Roan remained utterly unperturbed.
A shield that would never break.
Seeing Roan falter for a split second only to immediately regain his perfect composure, Charbun let out a quiet sigh of relief.
Of course. There is no way Lord Roan would waver. Even if he has doubts, he is a person who shakes them off instantly.
It was unconditional trust.
Just as Roan's expectations pushed them forward, their expectations might have been what pushed Roan forward as well.
But.
Roan didn't show even a flicker of emotion under the weight of that expectation.
He slowly looked ahead.
The demonic twin-spear knight and the silver army.
Then, he glanced to his sides and behind him.
Soldiers clad in heavy iron armor were advancing, their footsteps clanking loudly.
A single, isolated island standing alone in the middle of a raging silver sea.
Jane's incantation and Belgard's concentration were not yet complete.
Even so, the light in Roan's eyes did not fade.
"Perfect timing."
"...Perfect timing? What on earth..."
"As expected of Lord Roan... Is a force of this scale nothing to him?!"
"No!"
Huh?
A flat denial that absolutely should not have come out in a situation like this.
Yet, it didn't cause any worry.
His expression clearly showed he had something up his sleeve.
"But it's fine. Because..."
Roan reached into his pocket and pulled something out.
A small, engraved tablet.
The Warrior's Token he had received in Horoljulol.
"I can just use what we accomplished together."
Crack!
He crushed it without a second thought.
"Ha! What difference does crushing a useless piece of scrap make?!"
For now, it might seem that way.
Ignorant of what the token represented, Soldrec and his soldiers continued their relentless assault.
Clang! Clang!
Clank. Clank.
Amidst the intermittent clashes and the heavy, drum-like thuds of armored footsteps, another sound began to weave through the noise.
Thump... Thump...
Thump, thump, thump...
"...What is that?"
"Drums? Is it our side?"
"No... we use trumpets..."
The heart-pounding drumbeats grew louder and louder.
In the distance, a commotion began to stir within the swirling red mist.
Crash! Crunch! Thud!
Unlike the sharp ring of sword strikes, these were heavy, blunt impacts.
The heavy thuds drew closer, adding a brutal cadence to the drumbeats.
And finally, the source of the drumming stepped into the heart of the battlefield.
"...Forward! Repay the debt our tribe owes!"
"Drench your hearts in blood!"
"Do not fear their iron armor!!"
The warriors of Horoljulol.
Warrior souls who tempered their bodies in gravel storms and threw themselves onto scorching sands.
They had joined the fray.
"Ha...! So that was your trump card! I suppose no fool would try to seize this place entirely on his own!"
But what of it?
"Adding those savages changes nothing! I'll turn all of you—and that tribe—into bloody fertilizer!!"
He had come to show off his strength, only for his opponent to block every single strike.
When he finally fought in earnest, he was met with nothing but mockery.
And now, the bastard had even summoned a tribe to oppose his army.
Furious at the endless string of complications, Soldrec roared and ordered his forces to charge.
But his rage quickly lost its direction.
"W-What... How are they this strong? Those backwater savages?"
The tribesmen of Horoljulol fought far better than anyone could have anticipated.
One by one, the silver knights began to fall to the ground.
The war drums pushed back the iron-clad army.
It was an irritating rhythm that seemed to declare a shift in the tide of battle.
Soldrec stumbled backward, thrown off by the beat.
"It's ready."
"We're done."
And with that, the final blow was dealt to the chaotic battlefield.
Belgard raised a hand toward the sky.
A massive black sphere, the size of a fist, appeared.
It was so pitch-black that it seemed capable of swallowing light itself, threatening to devour everything in its vicinity.
Whoosh!
Yet, the only thing it actually drew in was the surrounding red mist.
The stench of death that filled the Battleground gathered into a single point.
As the crimson fog was entirely sucked away, bright sunlight slowly began to break through.
"Jane...!"
"Yeah. Toss it up."
It floated upward.
The condensed death of the Battleground.
The pitch-black sphere revealed its ominous presence beneath the sunlight.
Jane pointed her finger toward it.
Whirrrrr!
An ear-splitting sound.
Along with a noise loud enough to fill the entire Battleground, a thin beam of light shot forward.
No, it wasn't thin at all.
The unleashed magic rapidly expanded in size.
Soon, the beam grew so massive it could be seen from the very edge of the horizon.
A grand-scale spell that declared their overwhelming superiority and absolute victory.
It pierced through the darkness holding the red mist, silencing everyone on the Battleground.
The bright sunlight and clear view illuminated the state of the battlefield.
"Ah..."
"What did they just..."
The sight instantly stripped away the fighting spirit of those who had been drunk on bloodlust, stepping over the corpses of their allies to fight.
"What?! What are you doing all of a sudden?! Now is our chance to drive the others out—ugh..."
A few still wished to fight, but even they turned away once they looked toward the center.
The lingering magic that still dominated the area, and the warrior tribe standing tall at the center.
Watching them drive out all opposition, any remaining confidence withered away.
Their courage crumbled completely.
In the silence where all the world's sounds had vanished.
A powerful voice echoed from the center of the pillar of light.
"Stop fighting now!"
It was Roan.
"How long do you intend to keep killing and stealing from one another?!"
His voice was loud enough to reach not just those nearby, but the very edges of the field.
"The center of the Battleground, the place you all value most! It has already been cleared!"
"Cleared just because we were pushed back slightly?! Don't give me that bullshit!!"
Boom!
Soldrec, finally snapping out of his daze, leaped forward.
But.
Heaven's Punishment
KABOOM!
He was blasted flat on his back, frozen in his charging posture.
It was Belgard's attack, now freed from his concentration.
He had drawn down a portion of the light beam Jane had shot upward and slammed it directly onto Soldrec's body.
If even Soldrec, who boasted the greatest durability in the kingdom, was reduced to this...
Witnessing the sheer power of the completed magic, the soldiers' shattered morale plummeted straight to rock bottom.
In other words, the operation to seize the Battleground was officially over.
Awed and terrified by the overwhelming display, the soldiers of various nations hesitated before beginning their retreat.
They slunk back to their respective territories.
No, they'll probably come back later.
They would launch irregular invasions to reclaim this land.
In that case, a proper defense system would be crucial.
In truth, Roan had already thought of a solution for that.
"People of Horoljulol."
"Ah, yes, Savior. We came to repay our debt in response to your call. Tell us, are you satisfied...?"
"Of course!"
He readily agreed.
But he wasn't finished.
"Still! Since fate has brought us together like this, I'd like to ask for one more favor. Would that be alright?"
"Certainly. We also felt that this was far from enough to fully repay our debt."
At his words, Roan pointed to the ground beneath their feet, as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.
"Live here, and protect this place."
"...Pardon?"
The chief's eyes blinked in confusion at the unexpected request.
"May... may I ask why?"
"Yes! Because this is going to be our base!"
Roan explained with absolute confidence.
They would use this place as a base of operations to handle incidents occurring across the entire continent.
But if they left to handle matters elsewhere, other nations would immediately try to seize it.
Even if Zaraxia stayed behind, it would be difficult to fend off every single invasion alone.
That was why he was asking the people of Horoljulol for help.
"I won't give you some cliché line about mutual cooperation. I'm simply asking for your help."
A straightforward request accompanied by a deep, respectful bow.
Roan's humble attitude thoroughly melted the hearts of the Horoljulol people, who had no intention of refusing him in the first place.
"Very well. We would much rather fight people than struggle against the gravel storms of nature anyway."
With those chilling words, they secured allies to guard their base.
The chief, having shown his firm resolve, looked around.
The red mist had cleared... but if anything, its absence only made the hellish landscape more visible.
"Then... shall we use this place as it is? Or do we need to clean it up first...?"
"Ah, you don't need to worry about that."
Belgard spoke up, as if he had been waiting for this.
Jane nodded in agreement.
And the two of them stepped forward and began clearing the area.
A bizarre, twilight-like power and a pillar of light that shattered the sky.
It was a rather absurd sight, watching such grand forces being used for mere cleanup.
...
Once the cleanup was finished, the people of Horoljulol began setting up their camp.
Zaraxia also agreed to perform his duty of guarding the base, just as he had promised.
And so, the party was back to its original four members.
Roan, quietly gazing at the Battleground that had now become their base, clapped his hands together as if remembering something.
"Oh, right!"
"Huh? Why? Is there something else we need to do?"
"Of course! We just claimed the Battleground! We have to go mock Jercoil!"
Ah.
Right.
They had forgotten the most important task.
It was time to mock Jercoil, who had sent men to mock them.
"Sounds good. So, are we heading to the kingdom?"
Keeping the proverb "repay kindness with kindness, and vengeance with vengeance" in mind, Jane asked Roan.
"No!"
But Roan's destination was not a ticket back to the kingdom.
"Let's go to Hidin!"
The very place Jercoil had mentioned.