EP6. The night before the storm (4)
My breath ran up to the tip of my chin.
But he couldn’t slow down his run. Shawn ran as fast as he could.
Thanks to that, Sean came back to Laes much faster than when he left in the morning.
From noble mtl dot com.
Where should I go?
The trouble wasn’t too long.
According to Kania, most of the adventurers and mercenaries who participated in yesterday’s banquet must have fallen asleep.
In the first place, Shawn would not be welcomed by either the baron, the branch manager, the mercenary or the adventurer.
Only one person, only him, gave it for Sean and Levy.
It is said that Kania was his disciple, so he will definitely help.
As soon as Shaun arrived in Raes, he headed for the Silent Wolf Clan.
I can see the clan in the distance. Sean didn’t slow down.
Today, unlike usual, there were no mercenaries guarding the gate.
Without hesitation, Shaun immediately opened the door and shouted.
“Hector! Mr. Hector!”
“······· Huh? Shawn? . . . Why are you here…”
As Shawn exclaimed, looking around him, he noticed something strange. It was because there was only one person in the clan.
One of them, Gania, was startled by Sean’s cry and asked in bewilderment.
“Gania! It’s a big deal! Where is Hector!?”
“······The leader is at the parade ground but…”
As soon as Shawn heard Gania’s words, as if he didn’t want to hear anything more, he immediately ran out through his back door to the parade ground.
And there, as she said, was Hector.
He seemed to be practicing his sword on the parade ground. It must have been a long time, and his body was covered with sweat.
“Mr. Hector!”
“Why are you here? By now.”
“Help!”
“Help? What?”
“Now, there are monsters left outside the city! Levi and Kania are holding on, but…We can’t do it alone, we need help!”
“······.”
Sean was puzzled. Because Hector didn’t show any reaction.
He continued to swing his sword as if he hadn’t heard.
“Mister Hector! If we don’t go to help right now, Levi and Kania are in danger!”
“······You must be misunderstanding something.”
“·····Yes···?”
Hector stopped swinging his sword and looked at Sean. His eyes were the ones I had never seen before.
At the time when I asked myself a question in the same place not too long ago.
Even then, he had the same cold eyes as Hector does now.
“There are no more monsters in Raes. I already checked everything yesterday.”
“······That’s what…”
“Wasn’t the reason for yesterday’s banquet in the first place to commemorate the complete subjugation of the monsters? You should know that too.”
“····What are you talking about? I saw the monster with my own two eyes!”
Sean was frustrated. Hector was seriously mistaken about something, he believed.
“No, there are no more monsters in this city.”
“····You helped us yesterday as well in the name of catching monsters!”
“Yes. It was my mistake There were no monsters. There is not a single monster left in Laes.”
Only then did Sean realize that something was going wrong.
Hector was not mistaken or misunderstood.
He was deliberately ignoring the facts.
But, why? Why?
Shawn exclaimed desperately.
“Kania is in danger too! ····Kania-san! She said she was your disciple!”
“My relationship with him was cut off a long time ago. He is a child who can take care of himself.”
“·····Miss Kania is in danger of being killed by monsters!”
It wasn’t Hector who responded to Shawn’s shouts. The reaction came from Sean’s back.
“What are you talking about, Shawn? My sister… What?”
“·····A monster has just appeared, Mr. Kania is dealing with a monster, and it is in a dangerous situation right now…”
“····Is that so, is that true!? Then right now…!”
“Gania.”
She stopped moving at Hector’s words. She then looked at her leader, who called her.
“Go in and wait.”
“・・・・Yes? But···.”
“This is the captain’s order.”
As if Gania couldn’t understand what he said, she put on a puzzled expression, and then she gradually couldn’t contain her astonishment.
Gania asked while meeting Hector’s cold gaze.
“・・・・・Are you sure you’re not planning on going to save me…?”
“Last time. Go in and wait.”
“…Now,… Is your sister… Just a throwaway card…?”
“…Gania.”
“I will go. Even alone.”
Saying that, Gania looked at Sean and said.
“Shaun, guide me.”
“Yes.”
Hector said to Gania, who was about to turn around and leave.
“Stop.”
“······.”
“If you take even one step now, you will no longer be a silent wolf.”
“·······I don’t need anything like that…”
With that said, she left her seat. Sean looked at the two for a while, but now he was in a hurry, so he immediately followed Gania.
Hector, who was left alone at the parade ground, stood there for a while.
And he immediately grabbed the sword he had put down.
Then he swung his sword at the scarecrow for training in front of him. His sword was savage and violent.
It looked like he was doing it not for sword training, but for simple anger.
In the end, the scarecrow broke without being able to contain Hector’s anger.
When the scarecrow broke and there was no target to wield the sword, Hector threw the sword to the ground.
His whole body was overflowing with sweat. He just slumped over, looking helpless.
“·····A foolish bastard…”
Hector’s words reached no one.
It only lingered in his own ears.
***
Sean looked at Gania running away and asked anxiously.
“·····Is it okay if we go alone…?”
“····I can only hope that it will be okay,····but unnie is quite trustworthy when she holds a sword···.”
Gania did what she said, but her insides seemed to burn black.
Gania naturally remembered what had just happened. When she came up with the idea, she found herself biting it hard enough that her lips naturally bleed.
It’s not that I don’t understand Hector’s meaning. He had beings to be responsible for.
It is difficult to disobey the baron’s hand-made orders when you have already been firmly in the baron’s eyes because of yesterday’s events.
···But, but still···.
Gania realized that it was pointless to think like this. It’s already happened anyway, and regretting or complaining won’t change anything.
So Gania decided to think of something else.
Please, be safe.
*
Sean and Gania made it to the road where the wagon was broken.
Shawn, who had been running back and forth without stopping, thought that his heart was about to explode, but he took a hard breath and said to Gania.
“·····Here. You can go into the forest from here.”
“Yes. Let’s go right in.”
The two entered the forest. This time, I didn’t run recklessly like before.
The monster may have moved somewhere, so you have to look around carefully so you don’t pass by.
Shawn, who was wary of his surroundings and moved to the place before, became increasingly anxious.
Will Levi and Kania be okay? With one more Gania, will she be able to catch that monster?
Shaun forced his anxious thoughts out of the way.
But he had to come to mind. Past childhood.
Sean had been through a situation similar to this one.
From noble mtl dot com.
When someone dear to him attracts the monster’s attention, Sean decides to run away and call for backup.
Without achieving that goal completely, the boy went back to looking for monsters and important people.
And by the time Sean arrived, the important person was already there.
Luke hyung, it was too late.
Why is it that these memories come to my mind right now? Maybe it was a mistake to leave Levi alone.
He decided to become a shield to protect Levi, but the shield left the owner’s arms and went somewhere else.
No, no. Sean stopped thinking about it.
He is right that he decided to protect Levi for the rest of his life. However, apart from him, Levy does not necessarily have to be protected by the existence of Sean.
Levy is strong. He’s more than himself. So Sean decided to trust Levy.
His childhood friend, a girl who is a genius wizard.
***
I don’t know how many times I’ve been thinking about when Sean will come.
Levy believed. Surely Sean will come and save them.
But the situation was not so good. As Levy had told Sean, after the binding spell, Levy had no more strength left to use magic.
Of course, the binding magic bought more time than expected, but it couldn’t last forever.
But it was quite unexpected for Levy. After the binding magic ended, he was thinking about dying without a move. While he was thinking about that, Kania was fighting the monsters with his sword.
Kania let go of the monster’s attack with minimal movement and countered it.
Even if Levi, who was unfamiliar with the sword, saw it, he could feel that the movement was at least comparable to Hector’s movement, which he had seen during the battle with Sean or Orki Magna.
But that was short-lived. Perhaps her stamina was gradually declining, Kania’s movements became more and more sluggish and she was unable to fully counter the attack.
Naturally, little by little, her scars began to increase all over her body.
Looking at her, Levy couldn’t do anything. If she can’t use magic herself, she’s just a normal girl with slightly better stamina than a normal girl.
And I naturally regretted it. If she had known about her spells or her magic circles, she could have helped her with even more magic than she does now.
Now, all Levy could do was take her rest and regain her energy as best she could.
And all I could do was pray as hard as I could.
The monster has charged once again. Kania really narrowly avoided the attack this time.
The monster snorted at her, disapproving that she kept dodging her attacks.
Every time the monster snorted, the menacing horns on the bridge of its nose also fluttered.
I have no strength in my whole body. Her legs are wobbly, and the arm holding the sword continues to sag.
At least one good thing is that the monsters are quadrupedal, so their attack patterns are not diverse.
However, because she was so ignorant of her weight class, no matter how much she attacked, she couldn’t get a single scratch right.
Seeing her appearance, Kania gave up her strategy of defeating the monster a long time ago.
She was just trying to take her best time waiting for her backup to come.
She tried to preserve her stamina by reducing her movements to a minimum. Of course, even that has reached its limit now.
Yes. It was the limit
I no longer had the confidence to dodge the next monster attack.
The option of running away was not even considered from the beginning. No matter how much I run, I won’t be able to get out of the range of that nimble guy.
Kania didn’t ask for much. She hoped that if she was killed by her monsters, the monsters would take their attention away from her own corpse.
Even so, she hoped to wait until support arrived. So I hoped that the good wizard girl would survive safely.
As if the monster was going to pierce the body with its horns and kill it this time, it writhed and snorted.
‘Yes. You must be very angry with me. Then take your anger out on my corpse as much as you can.’
Kania thought so and closed her eyes.
Thump. Footsteps were heard. She felt herself getting closer and closer.
Right in front of her death, Kania thought.
Although he didn’t become a great adventurer, he said his life was satisfying enough.
The only regret is that she didn’t get to see her lovely sister in the end.
Kania felt her whole body shake. She also felt a sense of floating in the air.
Could she have been hit by her vicious horns? But she had a lot of oddities to say so.
First of all, she felt no pain. Maybe she’s in so much pain that she can’t bear to feel it.
Another strange thing about it is that it was so warm that it covered her whole body.
“It’s warm…”
“What nonsense are you talking about!? Did you decide to die without avoiding it!?”
Kania opened her eyes to the familiar voice of her.
It was a boy. Recently, she is the boy she is most interested in and often meets.
Shaun’s expression was distorted. Did something unpleasant happen?
I didn’t even think that the reason for that expression was because of me,
Kania said with a smile.
“···hehehe, Sean just now. It was a position like a prince on a white horse.”