Chapter 173: Front Line(1)
Chapter 173: Front Line(1)
The ruins that might hold the key to the White Witch's seal.
The name of that city, now nothing but crumbling remains, was Shambhala.
It was once the capital of an ancient kingdom.
The Witch told me the seal was a gift from a god to Asmodeus, the emperor of that ancient kingdom.
Since the seal originally belonged to Asmodeus, she said there was a high probability the key would be in the ruins of the imperial palace in the capital, Shambhala.
So, we’d figured out the most likely location of the key. The problem was... it was too far away.
More importantly, the timing was terrible.
We had finally destroyed the second Black Monolith, with only the last one remaining.
There was no way those bastards would go down easily in the final battle.
Lina seemed to know this as well, her expression serious.
"You must not let your guard down until the very end."
Lina said, forced to lie in bed by her worried companions. Seriously, all she does is worry, day in and day out.
"They... those bastards won't be defeated this easily. They're probably gathering all their forces at the third Black Monolith, the one closest to here, and waiting for us."
"..."
"Everyone needs to be prepared."
The moment Lina finished speaking, a commotion started outside.
The village was in an uproar, as if it were under attack.
"An attack! A-An army of monsters is invading!"
Along with that shout, the sound of an alarm bell, heavy with danger, echoed throughout the village.
It was the bell rung when the village was in peril.
Outside the window, we could see villagers running around in a panic.
Lina got out of bed and leaped out the window.
There was no time to stop her. Just like a hero.
The rest of the party was about to follow her out the window.
But Kerry remained standing, lost in thought.
"Husband? Aren't you going? It would be better if you didn't, but..."
"No, I'm going, Natasha. But an attack at this exact moment... the timing bothers me. Let's go see what's happening."
Natasha picked Kerry up and jumped from the window. The others followed one by one.
When they arrived at the loudest part of the village, Lina stood before the enemy, her Spirit Sword planted in the ground.
She looked like a beautiful hero straight out of a fairy tale.
'An army of monsters...'
The description was accurate. It really was an army of monsters. I could see brutes armed with heavy axes and armor at a glance.
Hundreds of armored ghouls stomped their feet in place simultaneously, as if to intimidate us.
The ground thundered—thump, thump.
It was undeniably menacing.
Just then, a horn blew. At the same time, the ghouls' stomping came to an abrupt halt. Well-trained, aren't they.
Then, one of them who seemed to be of high rank stepped forward and shouted.
"Are you the heroes?!"
The one who stepped forward as the leader was hideous. He looked like something out of a horror movie.
His skin was gaunt and dry, and he had no lips, revealing his gums and teeth as he spoke in a voice like scraping metal.
'Seriously? Are there no normal-looking ones? I hate horror flicks.'
Lina, unfazed by his grotesque appearance, answered.
"That's right! I am Lina Knightly, hero of the Goddess Elpis!"
As soon as they heard the hero's name, the troops roared, trying to intimidate her.
Their voices were bizarre, but no one in our party was about to be cowed by that.
"My name is Balkan! I am here to deliver the will of our great creators, who hold a lofty purpose!"
"Speak."
"The great creators have declared that if you do not cease your interference at once, something terrible will happen!"
Natasha, standing beside me, sneered.
"What terrible thing? If you had the power to do it, you would have done it already!"
Exactly. Balkan continued.
"Your bodies are finite. Do you truly believe a mere handful of you can protect all the humans scattered across this continent?
They said that if you do not stop, countless lives on this continent will be sacrificed because of you!"
A vein throbbed on Lina's forehead.
They were always like this, threatening them by holding the lives of the weak hostage.
But in this life, she would not play into their hands.
She had seen with her own eyes in her past life what came of playing their game.
The countless undead. She could never allow that horrifying future to repeat itself.
The top priority was always their extermination.
"Do as you please. We will not stop."
"You'd do well to reconsider. The creators have far more forces than what you see here..."
"I don't care how many troops you have or how strong they are. I will not stop. Go tell that to your decrepit old masters."
Balkan gritted his teeth.
"You will regret this, hero."
'Did they really come all this way just to say that?'
It seemed their plan was to use sacrifices as bait to stop Lina.
But there was no way Lina, who had experienced the Great War before regressing, would be stopped by something like that.
Just then, Balkan's eyes turned to Kerry.
"You there, man. Are you the adventurer, Kerry?"
So he knows my name. What an honor.
"What of it?"
"What is your identity?"
Balkan had been given orders. He was to dig up information on Kerry during this encounter.
It was because the Black Witch had reacted to Kerry's name.
"Our investigation into the other heroes is complete. But no matter how much we investigate you, nothing comes up.
We couldn't find a single trace of where you're from, who your family is, or what you did growing up.
It's as if you just fell from the sky."
A perfect description. I did fall from the sky.
"How did a man with the reputation of an ordinary F-rank adventurer end up with the hero's party... Or were you hiding your power back then?"
“...”
"Say something, adventurer. What are you?"
What should I tell him?
To a guy who just asks for my identity outright.
If he's that curious, maybe it wouldn't be so bad to tell him.
Kerry raised his middle finger. It was the universal language of his beloved homeland.
"What is that finger? What does it mean?"
"It's a common sign language from my homeland. Take it as a hint. Figure it out."
"...I will do that."
Kerry snickered at the guy's serious reply. He's more naive than he looks.
Having said their piece, the bastards left. It seemed bringing the army was a kind of show of force.
A priest of Elpis suggested we hunt them down now, but Lina shook her head.
"If we fight them now... the village will surely be damaged.
Besides, we're bound to clash with them at the final Black Monolith anyway. We don't need to engage them now.
They'll be hell-bent on protecting the Black Monolith, so they won't have the luxury of pillaging other villages."
So, no fight.
Just then, a group of men on horseback approached, as if they had been waiting. Now what?
These guys also seemed to have business with Lina the hero. So popular, our Lina.
"We are messengers of the Empire. We have come to deliver a message from His Majesty the Emperor, the rightful ruler of all nations."
"We feared we had arrived just in time to be caught in a battle with that evil horde, but thankfully, no fight broke out."
"Hero, please assume the proper etiquette to receive His Majesty's message."
The messengers spoke politely, but to put it bluntly, they were telling her to kneel.
Lina shook her head and replied.
"I'm sorry, but I am not a subject of the Empire. I have no reason to pay respects to your Emperor."
The messengers seemed to have expected this response.
The Emperor must have also heard that Lina was not Elena's hero.
As if they had no choice, they began to recite the Emperor's message.
It was full of flowery language and redundancies, but the gist of it was this:
"What... what did you just say? You're saying an inhuman monster has appeared at the border... and is attacking the border of Astria?"
"That is correct, hero. Furthermore, His Majesty the Emperor stressed that this is not the Empire's doing.
He asks that you not be swayed by baseless rumors."
The villagers began to murmur. Filled with distrust for the Empire, they shouted.
"If you didn't order it, then why would such a monster attack the border! You servants of the evil goddess Elena!"
As the villagers shouted, the knights became agitated and started shouting back, and a fight broke out.
The atmosphere grew more and more heated. This was exactly what the bastards had been aiming for.
Amid the chaos, Lina clenched her fists.
'So this is what they meant... that if I don't give up, there will be countless sacrifices.'
It was a threat: if she didn't stop now, they would start a war.
Lina raised a hand, silencing the villagers. Just by raising her hand.
Astria was, after all, the hero's home turf.
Having quieted the crowd, Lina spoke.
"What is the situation at the border?"
"...Not good. Countless undead, the likes of which we've never seen, are rising at the front line.
One of them is said to be so massive it can destroy the fortress walls with ease."
“...”
"So far, they haven't attacked any country... but they have been seen roaring at Astria's walls from time to time."
"Can Astria's soldiers hold them back?"
"As a knight of the Empire, I cannot say for certain... but I expect it will be difficult."
Of course.
Those bastards have been preparing this for a long time; they must know the military strength of both sides very well.
There was no way they would fail to break through Astria's walls.
'It's infuriating to be manipulated by them, but I have to stop it.'
If Astria's walls fall now, a war will inevitably break out.
The reason they hadn't broken the front line yet and were just waiting was all to 'lure' Lina.
She knew it was a ploy to buy time, but she had no choice but to go.
Because she was a hero.
However, it wasn't a huge cause for concern.
The fact that they had used such a large force, enough to start a war, meant that the forces guarding the final Black Monolith had been reduced.
'They can't keep using their forces like this over and over again.'
No matter what, their army wasn't infinite. At least, not until the Black Witch awakened.
Meaning, if they could stop this one time, they wouldn't have to worry about it again.
"What will you do, Lina?"
Kerry could clearly see what Lina would choose, but he asked out of courtesy.
Lina looked at him with her pure eyes and said,
"Of course, we have to go stop them. I can't let a war break out now."
The rest of the party seemed to have no objections.
Kerry also felt that if that was Lina's decision, it was the right one.
"Let's leave at once."
Hearing Lina, the messengers said,
"If you need them, we can lend you our horses."
They were willing to give up their own horses. The thought was commendable, but Lina shook her head.
"We'll run. It's much faster that way."
"What?"
The knights were stunned.
It was true that mana users could run faster than horses.
But to run such a long distance at high speed would exhaust even a mana user.
It was still a bit of a stretch, but there was someone who could make it possible.
Arwen.
"Princess Arwen, the Blessing of the Wind, please."
"Yes! Blessing of the Wind!"
The Blessing of the Wind, which made one's body as light as a feather, would allow them to reach the border, which wasn't too far yet, much more quickly and easily.
Lina formulated a plan in an instant.
First, the fast-moving front line—Lina, Natasha, and Victoria—would depart ahead.
"Hmph. I want to go with my husband, too."
Natasha whined, but it couldn't be helped.
The plan was for the rear support—Kerry, Arwen, and the Saintess—to follow behind them.
The old crone with the bad knees was naturally left out.
And so, Kerry, Arwen, and the Saintess ran through the forest side by side.
They were the slower support team, but with the Blessing of the Wind, they could just about make it in time.
There was one small problem, however. Arwen's base stats were so low that she struggled to run even with the blessing.
"I'm sorry... Sir Kerry. Am I heavy?"
Thanks to that, Kerry ended up running with Arwen on his back. With the Blessing of the Wind, it wasn't a problem. After always being the one carried, carrying someone else felt strange.
"Not at all. You're as light as a feather, Princess."
Arwen's cheeks flushed at Kerry's words.
The Saintess, running alongside them, shot them a dirty look, though. I'll remember that look. We'll see about you later.
Arwen seemed to see being carried by Kerry as an opportunity and was enjoying the skinship to her heart's content.
She pressed her chest tightly against Kerry's back and even groped his body, using the excuse that she was afraid of falling.
'How did our innocent princess end up like this...'
Somehow, it felt like everyone in the party was getting lewder.
In the midst of this, Arwen, still on his back, took an interest in Kerry's ear.
"Sir Kerry... I-I'm sorry, but could I possibly touch your ear? It's my first time seeing a human ear this up close..."
"...Do as you please."
The moment permission was granted, Arwen began to caress Kerry's ear freely.
"Human ears... are truly fascinating."
'Aren't elven ears, which are as sensitive as an erogenous zone, the more fascinating ones?'
Kerry swallowed those words.
Kerry couldn't see it, but Arwen's face was bright red.
For elves, ears are an erogenous zone as sensitive as their pussies.
This meant that touching another's ear was an act as lewd as touching their genitals.
To Arwen, touching Kerry's ear felt no different from performing an obscene act on him.
"I'm... ungh... Sir Kerry's... haah... ear... hnnng..."
Arwen's ragged breaths were clearly audible in his ear. Kerry had to force himself to ignore the sound.