The Accepter Awakens
"It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call this a second Wave."
Milland clenched his fist as he watched the yellow-and-blue tide rolling toward Habun Castle.
"Issue Wave-level combat readiness! Summon every swordsman and soldier on standby!"
His magnificent voice shook the entire rampart.
"Open the armory and prepare for battle!"
At Milland's swift, precise orders, the scouts who had been staring blankly at the monsters scrambled down from the walls.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The same highest-alert bells that rang during a Wave pealed across all of Habun Castle.
"W-what's going on?!"
"What the hell is it this time?!"
"Damn it! How long are we supposed to keep paying off this year's bad luck?!"
"Shut up and move! They're coming!"
"The armory's open—grab your weapons first!"
Hearing the bells, swordsmen and soldiers burst from the barracks and training grounds and raced to their posts.
"Radin."
Milland gestured to Radin, who had been biting his lip.
"You were the last one out on reconnaissance, weren't you?"
"Yes, sir. I went out three days ago."
"No signs of this?"
"As I reported, I found no unusual changes."
"Then Eden may have pulled another trick. Those three have the power to control monsters, after all."
Milland looked to Raon as if seeking agreement.
"This is only my opinion, but I don't think that's the case this time."
Raon shook his head as he looked down from the wall.
"It isn't?"
"No. Even if Eden's famous for being stupid, they wouldn't repeat a method that already failed once. And..."
He raised a finger toward the charging monsters.
"Their expressions and their presence are different from usual. Doesn't it look like they're fleeing from something, rather than coming to slaughter or rampage?"
"I felt that too. That's why I thought it was Eden."
Milland stroked his scabbard and let out a sigh.
"Either way, this isn't going to be easy to weather."
"It doesn't look like it."
As Raon nodded, Wrath rose from the ice-flower bracelet like a dying ember stirring back to life.
Hooo.
At last, it has come.
He wasn't looking at the monsters ahead, but at the far distance—at the faintly visible Sterin Mountain.
What's coming?
This King told you, did he not? That a sleeper was there. That damned thing has finally awakened.
A ghostly flame kindled in Wrath's blue eyes. He looked pleased, angry, and expectant all at once.
The one you told me to run from a month ago?
Indeed. The one This King spoke of then has only now risen. It must have woken when that doppelganger burst.
Is it some kind of dragon?
Raon followed Wrath's gaze toward Sterin Mountain. Naturally, he felt nothing. Only the faintest unease.
A dragon? You are under a rather grand misconception.
Wrath snorted and waved a tiny hand.
Then what is it? I need to know what it is before I can decide whether to run or not.
It is already too late. There was a chance while it still drifted between sleep and waking, but it has already locked onto all of you.
What?
A chill crawled down his entire body at those words.
It will not stop until this castle is erased and every last one of you is dead. Unless, of course, you offer a fitting sacrifice.
Sacrifice? What sacrifice? Who the hell is coming?!
Raon grabbed Wrath by the head and lifted him. Unlike usual, Wrath wore a leisurely smile.
See it with your own eyes. This King has no obligation to tell you.
You...
This King told you. This wager would end in This King's victory. At this rate, it may not stop at victory—This King might even take your body.
Wrath was certain the being descending from above would flatten this castle.
"Huu..."
Raon let out a long, heavy breath. Judging by Wrath's reaction, he could guess at a few possibilities—but Wrath clearly wasn't going to tell him, so he didn't bother voicing them.
"Form ranks!"
"Spearmen and infantry, line up before the wall! Archers without a place on the rampart, take position below!"
Soldiers and knights who had finished their preparations at speed took their posts and stared, taut-faced, at the oncoming monsters.
"Hah, shit..."
"They said this year's luck was rotten..."
"This is garbage. Absolute garbage!"
The soldiers' lips trembled as they watched the monsters pouring in like a desert sandstorm.
"Don't worry so much. We've got the Commander and Sir Raon!"
"True—casualties have dropped a lot since Sir Raon got here."
"Ice Troll Lord Slayer, and now Doppelganger Slayer on top of it. He's writing history."
"It isn't just his strength. He's someone you respect in spirit, too."
Swordsmen and soldiers glanced his way with faint smiles. Faces brimming with trust. It was a feeling he couldn't fully accept, not yet.
"Commander."
Tasting something bitter on his tongue, Raon approached Milland. The gaze that met his was just as full of faith.
"If I may ask. If an enemy we couldn't hope to beat appeared, what would you do?"
He raised an aura barrier over himself and Milland so no one else could hear.
"That's not like you."
Milland's expression didn't so much as flicker, as if he were wearing a mask. He kept his bearing proud and tapped his scabbard.
"We'd still fight. Behind this castle are countless civilian villages. Even if all we can do is buy time, we hold the line and cut the losses. That's why Habun Castle exists."
"...I see."
Raon bit his lip. If a dragon were actually flying in, that would be one thing. He didn't know what was coming, so he couldn't persuade anyone.
In the end, I'll have to meet it myself.
Whatever it was, he steeled himself to cut it down and evened his breathing.
Hrm.
Wrath nodded with a look of complete ease.
Worry not. This King shall most certainly save the pineapple girl.
Shut up.
Raon shoved the delighted Wrath aside and took his assigned position.
Wrath's words were genuine. Something they couldn't handle was coming. That much was certain.
And yet.
"Sir Raon! We're counting on you!"
"Please take care of us again today!"
"I'll shoot till my fingers come off, so leave our backs to us!"
He could feel the soldiers and swordsmen drawing strength from the sight of his back. He couldn't betray those expectant eyes and run off alone.
Earning people's expectations isn't just a happy thing, is it.
Receiving another person's trust and hope seemed to carry a responsibility that went far beyond joy. It was a feeling he never could have known as an assassin.
All because of this damned thing, I'm learning every lesson under the sun.
Raon glared at Wrath and tightened his grip on the hilt.
"Ugh, we're doomed. We're so doomed."
Dorian's voice was thick with tears as he hauled logs and rocks out of his belly pouch in heaps, ready to hurl them the moment monsters tried to scale the wall.
"All units, prepare for combat!"
"Prepare for combat!"
Milland drew his sword and gave the final order. The soldiers roared the command back and slammed their spear shafts into the ground.
"Raon."
He turned his head and called the name. Every gaze in the castle swung toward him.
"I'll leave today's battle address to you."
A battle address was a single line spoken before the fighting began, meant to lift the soldiers' spirits. Until now, Milland had always delivered it himself. Passing it to Raon for the first time meant something.
"Why me...?"
"Because I think it'll be more effective coming from you than from me."
Milland jerked his chin toward the soldiers. The faith in those eyes set Raon's chest boiling.
A battle address...
The way he had lived had never given him a way with words. But there was one thing he wanted.
Raon turned. Meeting the eyes of all of Habun Castle, he smiled faintly, and put his whole heart into a single unadorned line.
"Th-that's it?"
"He's even worse at speeches than I expected."
Dorian's jaw dropped. Beto snorted a laugh.
"Hmm..."
"It's manly. I like it."
Edquil simply watched. Terian nodded, gentle.
"I like it simple."
"Yeah, the Commander's battle addresses are way too long anyway."
"At first I thought he was a swordsmanship academy principal."
Knights and soldiers burst out laughing. The fear and tension that had hung over them on the brink of war scattered like dust on the wind, and a fighting spirit that seemed ready to pierce the sky rose in its place.
"A mere swordsman, raising the entire force's morale to its peak."
The corner of Milland's mouth lifted, thin and sharp.
"This is where you stand now. It means you command a trust that surpasses even a commander's."
"I only..."
"I'm counting on you again today. Save as many soldiers as you can."
The smile left Milland's face as he raised a hand toward the sky. The instant that hand closed into a fist, the third war began.
"Loose!"
A silver swarm of arrows, packed with the will to live, traced a beautiful arc and tore through monster hide.
"Kyaaaaagh!"
"Graaaaaah!"
"Kiaaaaaah!"
But the monsters did not stop. Their eyes twisted as if a dragon's reverse scale had been struck, and they charged the walls.
"Loose!"
At Milland's command, hundreds of arrows fell in succession. Countless monsters drove their heads into the dirt—but even more spent the last of their lives slamming their bodies against the stone.
KRAAAAAANG!
When the monsters rammed the wall in unison, the castle shuddered as if it might come down.
"They're climbing! Prepare for close combat!"
"Rocks and timber first—throw!"
"Yaaaaaah!"
Starting with Dorian, the soldiers hurled stone and wood, crushing the orcs, trolls, and Krats scrambling up the rampart. Spearmen thrust downward. Archers never stopped snapping their strings.
Mighty fighting spirit rode the blades catching the dying sunset, but the monsters would not fall back. Obsessed with a single thought—get over the wall, no matter what—they climbed like madmen.
Raon looked into their eyes and bit his lip.
I knew it.
Terror filled those pupils. He hadn't been mistaken. The monsters weren't driven by hunger or bloodlust. They were thinking of one thing only: get over this wall and run.
"GRAAAAAH!"
The first to crest the rampart was an ogre. With monstrous leaping power, it landed on the wall in just two bounds.
"Eeeek!"
"Hahk!"
As soldiers recoiled from the ogre's roar and killing intent, Raon moved. In a single stroke he severed the right arm that had been about to smash their skulls.
"GROOOOARGH!"
The ogre didn't even try to counter. It stamped again, trying to drop down the far side of the wall—but Raon had no intention of letting it go. A slash shot forth like a shaft of light and sent the ogre's head flying.
"GROOOOOH!"
"KYAAAAK!"
Trolls and Sharkmols followed, swarming up the castle like ants. Raon draped the rampart in Glacia, cutting down monsters and pulling soldiers out of danger as he went.
"Kiaaaaah!"
A Sharksting smashed through one section of the wall and climbed up. The spines covering its entire body trembled like arrows nocked and ready to fly.
"Hahk!"
"A S-Sharksting!"
"The spines are coming!"
"Hiiiek!"
The instant those spines drew in to launch, the creature's head left its shoulders—and Raon appeared behind the falling body.
"Th-thank you."
"Sir Raon!"
Raon accepted the thanks of the soldiers who had collapsed where they stood, then looked beyond the wall.
Even the animals are coming?
Behind the surging monsters, he could see the wild beasts that lived near Sterin Mountain. The sight of animals that hadn't even moved during a Wave now fleeing made his hair stand on end.
"Nnh..."
Milland had seen the same thing. He bit down hard on his lip. Even for a man who had spent his entire life in this place, the situation was appalling.
"Terian!"
"Sir!"
At the call, Vice Commander Terian snapped to attention.
"Send the scouts. Evacuate the villages behind the castle. The civilians inside the walls as well. All of them!"
"Sir?"
Terian's eyes flew wide at an order he had never expected.
"Now!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
Terian swallowed a dry throatful and dropped from the wall to start issuing orders to the scouts.
As I thought.
He had clearly realized this was worse than a Wave. Even so, he still showed no sign of intending to fall back.
Raon clicked his tongue—and a vast diamond-shaped shadow fell across the rampart.
"Mantakun!"
"Two of them! Coming from both sides!"
Just as the soldiers said, enormous ray-shaped monsters—Mantakun—were gliding in.
Raon and Milland moved as one. They brought their swords down on the Mantakun rising to the left and right. Two blades spat fire of two different colors.
KRAAAAAANG!
The two Mantakun, split down the middle, crashed down and buried the monsters climbing the wall. The ground shook as if in an earthquake, and for a heartbeat the fighting lulled.
Raon's eyes met Milland's. The old, wrinkled face drew a gentle arc. Then an aura message arrived.
He went on as he carved through a pack of orcs.
With that, he turned his head. He did not look this way again.
He's telling me to run?
Raon looked back. Gazes steeped in conviction and trust were lighting the dark. If he had meant to flee alone, he would have been long gone.
KRAAAAAANG!
He clenched his teeth and brought his sword down. Sunset fire caught on the blade-tip and leapt like lightning, shearing the heads of the trolls packed along the wall.
"I can't run off alone."
Raon turned a killing gaze on Wrath, who was smiling at his leisure.
And I can't lose to you, either.
Pointless struggling, is it?
Whether it has a point or not is something we'll know after it's over.
This King can already picture you on your knees, struck dumb with horror.
Even if I end up on my knees, I'll keep these people alive.
Beneath the yellowing moon, crimson and azure gazes collided.
The defense of the castle lasted until sunrise the next day.
It wasn't a simple war. It was a blood-soaked struggle for survival, and the soldiers standing on the rampart were gasping, their arms and legs gone slack.
But on will and duty—the will to hold this castle—they kept thrusting spear and sword to the very end.
"It's almost over!"
"Give it everything you've got till the last!"
"Hold! Trust the comrade at your back!"
Officers and soldiers alike roared as they swung their weapons without pause. Under that blazing fighting spirit the monster tide began to ebb, and the end of it came into view.
"Not much left!"
"When the sun rises, the victory is ours!"
"Waaaaaaaah!"
The monsters were clearly fewer than yesterday, and strength returned to the soldiers' eyes.
"Kiaaaaaah!"
"Krarak!"
The monsters' reaction, though, was still unlike anything usual. Even with their numbers cut down, they didn't flee. They climbed the wall more desperately than before. Of course, those who scrambled up without a thought simply offered their necks to the swords of knights and swordsmen.
"What the hell is wrong with these things?"
"They should be running by now, right?"
"Why isn't the sun coming up?!"
"Huh? Come to think of it, sunrise was a long time ago!"
Soldiers who had realized that both the monsters and the situation itself were wrong frowned.
"Ah..."
Raon's eyes flew wide.
The sun isn't rising?
Night refused to end. The sky remained drowned in darkness.
The instant he understood it, a man approached, parting the curtain of night.
The moment he saw the three horns rising from the forehead and temples, he couldn't breathe—as if he had come face to face with the abyss.
"Haa..."
From far away—too far for any sound to carry—the man's breathing touched Raon's ear.
He parted his deathly blue lips and lifted his head. Black eyes from which the light was fading. The instant those eyes met his, Raon took a shock as if his soul itself had cracked.
Something like this... actually exists.
The aura of death seeping up around him was enough to unhinge the mind. The majesty of a Demon King. An incarnation of demonic power was setting its sights on this place.
Muttering words that made no sense, he trampled across the pale night. It seemed as if all the light in the world was being swallowed by him.
That's him? The sleepyhead you were talking about?
Raon clenched his teeth and looked down at the flower bracelet.
So you have finally realized.
A ghastly cold surged in Wrath's blue eyes. He twisted his mouth as he looked at the monster he named Sloth.
That slug's name is the Accepter. Sloth.
He is a Monarch who has ascended to the same throne as This King. The Monarch of Sloth.