Chapter 32
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Desperation Works
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“Heh heh.”
Requiya wiped the sweat trickling down his chin with the back of his hand and chuckled.
That demon’s always so disarmingly cheerful, no matter when I look.
The bright young-old man’s face suddenly hardened into a stern expression.
“Holy knights or whatever, the other knights and nobles couldn’t care less if the commoners live or die. But you, Captain—you chose the path that saves the people.”
Is that really how it is?
I tilted my head inwardly but kept a straight face.
“Yeah. If the results are good, then it’s all good.”
If what’s good for me is good for others too, there’s no reason to turn it down.
During my stay in the western border city, I’d been exposed to plenty of the blood, sweat, and tears shed by folks like Requiya and the other freemen who had no protection.
It had left a bad taste in my mouth the whole time.
By the standards of the orderly, hygienic world I came from, this city wasn’t exactly paradise.
Yet the kids splashing around in the filthy puddles here were supposed to be the safe and happy ones.
Which made me wonder just how bad things were in the other cities.
I shook my head, chasing away the sudden gloom.
Still, don’t lose sight of the goal. Surviving is priority one, and that means I need loot.
In this world, surviving one day makes you one day stronger.
Surviving two days makes you two days stronger.
Put another way, surviving one day ups your odds of surviving the next.
Acquire an ability, and you grow by the full measure of its power. Who knows—months, years, maybe.
【That’s right!】
The sun was setting.
I turned in my wooden sword and headed back to the inn.
“Time to go mine some iron.”
“Right behind you.”
Boom boom boom boom boom!
We mined aggressively, but the moment our eyes met, we’d break into sparring with our pickaxes.
“Come at me, Requiya.”
“Already did?”
This demon bastard—ambushing me like a coward.
Couldn’t even smash him with the pickaxe. Infuriating.
Rest breaks weren’t complete without lever-spear drills in the wide open spaces either.
“Those lunatics are at it again!”
“Kinda fun to watch now, huh?”
The miners who’d ignored us at first were starting to take interest in our sparring sessions in the pitch-black depths.
“How do they even move like that?”
“Can’t even see ’em anymore.”
I’d adapted to the dark mine, and now even the sharp-eyed underground tribe miners couldn’t track our movements with their eyes.
For me, it was training that suppressed the chill in my heart while building daily strength.
For Requiya, it seemed to hold some extra meaning beyond just getting stronger.
“You’re faster than yesterday, right, Captain? But I didn’t get hit. Dodged it clean.”
No matter how I looked at it, this guy enjoyed needling me more than actual swordplay.
Thwack!
“Ow! Heh heh heh, that stings... doesn’t it?”
I’d swung for his yapping mouth but settled for his skull instead. Guess I’m generous with the nice ones.
Staring at the lump on Requiya’s head sparked a sudden curiosity.
“How come you don’t have horns?”
“I’m a different race from those demons.”
Oh. At least he didn’t mix me up with a vampire.
Living with Requiya had taught me a bit more about demons.
If living a single day grows your body or knowledge by a day’s worth, that alone makes for a meaningful life.
It had been over two weeks since I arrived in the western border city.
I’d already explored every corner of it.
Once I’d settled in, my days were spent building rapport with Fred and his security squad at the training grounds.
I taught Fred judo and taekwondo along with boxing and the hand-to-hand combat I’d picked up in the sanctuary.
It started when he got curious watching me do splits on a bench.
His subordinates reacted with confusion at first.
Vice-captain Porsta especially couldn’t see the point.
“Andre’s one strange guy. Why fight like that when you’ve got a sword?”
“Need me to spell it out, Pornostar?”
“It’s Porsta.”
Whatever.
Fred stepped in to explain in my place.
“Think about times without a sword. Or how you roughhoused with friends as kids. Easy, right?”
Grab hair, roll around.
Swing wild punches.
Spit, chuck stones.
I’d learned a thing or two about people in this world by now.
“Swords can snap anytime. But master hands and feet, and you fight bare. Especially deadly in tight spots.”
That explanation should’ve done it, but Fred was meticulous as a teacher.
“Twenty laps around the grounds—for reflection. Execute!”
“E-execute!”
Fred had a gift for teaching and learning alike.
In just ten days, he’d absorbed my techniques, drilled them into his men, and made them his own.
As he unwrapped the bandages from his hands after a boxing spar, Fred asked,
“So what’s your real deal, Andre?”
“Told you. Holy knight.”
Straightforward and honest to a fault, that mouth of his.
Would’ve been better if he kept it shut—sometimes Luke’s temperament slipped out.
Still, no surprise there.
Requiya and I had been blabbing about my identity as a holy knight all over town.
Inn, mine, hot springs, general store, clothing shop, stables, smithy—you name it. Introduced ourselves everywhere.
I always tell the truth. It’s like being cursed by Insight Ability to never lie.
Fred’s reaction caught me off guard.
I’d half-expected him to squint suspiciously, thinking I was mocking him.
Instead, he just nodded.
“Hmm...”
Hmm? A nod? Why?
A holy knight hawking wares, mining, doing splits—what’s so hmmm-worthy about that?
“Thought it was a joke at first, but it’s starting to fit.”
Huh?
Some next-level shade?
My eyes must’ve wavered without thinking.
Fred smirked and waved it off.
“Not a bad thing. Means it truly suits you.”
“I see.”
Suits me? For real? No cap?
“Hiding your divinity for whatever reason, but your actions scream true cleric. Saving that kid from the spooked horse, thrashing the drunken rider, sweating through nights in the dark mine with the miners, rolling in the muck of the training grounds with the commoners by day. All while vowing to hunt the bloodsucking fiends preying on the people.”
Fred’s men nodded solemnly at me, eyes full of resolve.
Pornosta, Rasten, Gustav...
Names stuck in my head, but memorizing them was another story.
Not hiding it—I just haven’t hit bronze rank to start glowing yet.
Among holy knight grades, you need at least bronze before your body shines.
Not everyone with divine power turns into a walking glowstick.
Anyway, Fred’s take sounded legit.
Good feedback—no need to bristle.
“Fred. Someday...”
I vaguely recalled my long-term plans, my grand design. Pictured Fred right there in it.
Watching him wield power not for abuse but to shield the pitiful, backed by men who trusted and followed him utterly.
“Spit it out, Andre.”
“Might need your strength someday.”
“Well now. An honor. God’s own messenger needing lowly ronin like us.”
“I’ll call when the time comes. With family here, leaving with me’d be tough. Just keep honing your skills in the meantime.”
“Strength, huh...”
Fred got serious.
I hadn’t been joking either.
“How do we build it?”
“That’s on you.”
No clue myself. Heh.
“And my real name’s not Andre. It’s Kalruk. Kalruk Seid.”
The name rolled off easy. Guess it was originally Luke’s.
“Kalruk. Suits you.”
Fred mulled it over with a blank look, while his men tilted their heads—“Heard that somewhere?”
Their reactions aside, I’d finally ditched the weird “Andre Bong” alias.
I dusted off my butt and stood.
“Where you off to mid-convo?”
“Iron mining.”
“Hah hah ha. Strange as ever.”
Grab six packed lunches, head to the inn basement—evening shift begins.
Work a bit, then dinner.
One for me, one for Requiya, one for Hama.
The underground tribe miners gawked at Hama chowing down on human grub.
“A hippo eating people food?”
“Grown hippos eat people too. Get bigger than now, it’ll swallow a dwarf whole. Or rip ’em apart if it can’t.”
“Eek!”
The dwarf miner Jirusong yelped and yanked his hand away from patting Hama’s rump—hand as big as a pot lid.
Just stating facts. Why the freakout?
【’Cause it’s facts!】
Mine all night, then another lunch at dawn snack time.
“Eat up, Captain.”
“You too, Requiya.”
“Hama too.”
Grrooo...
After chow, Hama strapped a glowstone to its forehead and dashed through the tunnels.
It saw me as protector, so when tuckered out from play, it’d curl up nearby for a nap.
Growled at others sometimes, but licked me when I came around.
Dog through and through.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Pickaxe frenzy made the glowstone flicker. Divine power I’d infused was tapped out—dawn breaking soon.
Rrrumble rumble rumble...
Everyone drained, focus slipping, when a faint tremor shook the tunnel.
“Earthquake?”
“Nah? Thirty years, never felt one.”
First time even for the veterans, but I knew what that rumble meant.
Knowing didn’t make it safe. Safety’s always prepping for the worst. I spoke gravely.
“Everyone out. Requiya, get ’em moving.”
“Smart call. Folks, let’s head topside till it settles.”
“Listen to Kalruk?”
“Grab the ore first?”
Once everyone evac’d safe, Requiya came back.
“Captain, what’s going on?”
“An ability.”
I set aside the pickaxe concealing it.
A red glow seeped from the cracked rock wall.
“Heh heh heh—crazy. Right in front of me and I feel nothing. A self-glowing ability? Must be something special—”
“Not light.”
“Huh?”
“An eye.”
Silver Star had clued me in.
The eye of a beast trapped sleeping in a rock crevice.
The mine-shaking tremor? It stretching after waking.
“Take Hama and go. Better evac the surface folks too. Buildings might come down.”
“And you?”
“Gonna catch it.”
I was channeling divine power to calm it down.
If I bailed, it’d go berserk and wreck the city.
The thing was radiating suffocating pressure and blistering heat.
“Requiya, no dawdling—move!”
“R-right!”
Requiya scooped up Hama and bolted from the tunnel.
My left hand, pressed to its eye to soothe it, burned hot.
From the heat it was giving off.
Cool it down.
Couldn’t let it wither up and die. I consciously channeled my freezing aura—the one that chilled me—right into it.
You’ve tormented me plenty. Least you can do is help out now, right?
【Let’s do it!】
Desperation works, as they say. Insight Ability’s chill started flowing from my hand into the beast.