161 episodes
Ethan came out of the cave.
Bright sunlight greeted Ethan and the two knights.
“You’re finally out of their den. It was terrible.”
“you’re right. How in the world does such a place exist… … .”
After leaving the dark follower’s lair, Christopher frowned.
Dylan also struck a match.
“As a proud Knight of Miles, I have been through many things, but I have never seen such a bizarre and unrealistic creature.”
Christopher shook his head.
Surely anyone who saw the sights inside the cave could only be astonished at what the Dark Followers were doing.
“Now what?”
Dylan asked Ethan.
The two knights were following Ethan rather than escorting him.
It was because Ethan’s actions were so decisive and fit in the right place.
He succeeded in infiltrating the Haup, which he thought was impossible.
It wasn’t just that.
Ethan and his party were able to confirm the true nature of the Dark Followers there.
It was a bigger income than expected.
So the two knights completely believed Ethan’s words.
“The chores at the Haup are over. For now, quietly get out of here and join the knights outside.”
“Huh, you’re finally leaving.”
“I will take the lead.”
Ethan and the two knights put on their hoods and secretly headed out of the castle.
No one doubted them.
I could guess how many Dark Followers usually roamed around with hooded hoods in the Haupe.
It was unimaginable in a normal castle.
‘I left a present, see you later.’
Ethan went out of the castle and looked back to the side of the cave.
I left a gift for the Plaguemaster deep in the cave.
Thinking about it made my body itchy.
‘I like it so much, I’ll go backwards.’
* * *
As he left the castle, Dylan saved a cart.
Ethan’s convenience was being taken care of.
“It’s a cart driven by a cheap donkey, but that should be enough.”
Dylan led Ethan towards the cart.
Ethan didn’t have to be treated like this in the middle of the enemy line.
But Dylan acted as if it was his job to take care of Ethan.
Ethan didn’t even bother asking.
Shaking foolish humility, I had no intention of making myself suffer.
“Come on this way.”
Ethan got into the cart.
There were several items purchased from the city under the piles of straw in the cart.
The main thing was food.
“What is this?”
Ethan asked Dylan.
“I thought it would be nice to be able to supply food when joining the Knights Templar, so I brought it.”
“Good idea.”
Ethan was satisfied.
Although he was used to preserved food, people wanted to eat a proper meal if possible.
Of course, not being able to use the bonfire was the same as last time.
So while the quality of the food will be inferior compared to eating it in town or in the city, it will be better than the preserved food you’ve been planning to eat for at least several months.
‘Is it fruit, vegetable, or meat?’
Ethan checked the ingredients Dylan had bought.
The supply was overflowing.
Most of all, there was no reason not to welcome that his meal would be different.
“I didn’t expect the Haup to be able to afford these things. By the way, the checkpoints may have been tighter because the Knights were running rampant. Which way shall we go?”
“Go to where Sir Conrad is.”
At Ethan’s words, Dylan made a perplexed face.
Where Konrad was deployed was Haup’s Gold Mine.
Haupe could be said to be the best money chain.
It was a place like that, and the boundaries were the highest.
He hesitated when he asked me to go to the most dangerous place while the checkpoints were getting stricter.
On the other hand, there were many relatively safe places among the other knights.
Dylan made eye contact with Christopher.
‘Are you going to convince the priest?’
‘I wish I did.’
After exchanging opinions in their eyes, Dylan nodded.
In fact, when he came to this place after breaking up with the Knights, Konrad urged him to do so.
-If Priest Ethan tries to go to a dangerous place, block it as much as possible. It is a life saver for us, so I want to take care of it as safely as possible.
Christopher and Dylan were of the same mind.
“The gold mines are probably doing well by Sir Conrad. Why not go somewhere else?”
“Other places are less important.”
“haha. If other knights hear it, they will be saddened by the importance of work.”
Dylan spoke as far as he could.
That is, while attracting other knights.
But Ethan didn’t even eat the seed.
Ethan looked at what kind of bullshit he was talking about.
“I’m not trying to judge the gravity of the work, I’m just going to a place that will be helpful to other areas of operation.”
“However… … .”
“Should I say it twice? I would have told you to go to where Sir Conrad is.”
“All right.”
Dylan sighed at Ethan’s pressure.
I couldn’t help it.
‘but. From the moment I entered the off-limits area to rescue patients from Dunsell, I knew it wasn’t usually stubborn.’
That was then.
Ethan and his party went out on the road and heard the conversations of the travelers.
“Did something happen in the gold mines?”
“They said they blocked access and strengthened the vigilance.”
“How many days are you going?”
“I don’t know. Shouldn’t those who raided the gold mines be caught?”
Ethan was satisfied with what the two travelers had said.
Apparently, Conrad was doing his job properly.
‘When the time comes later, ancient witchcraft will be able to stop, and now all we have to do is stop the money lines in the gold mine.’
Ethan smiled slyly.
all-out war?
Compared to the rebels, the kingdom army was outnumbered.
Ethan had no intention of pushing it ignorantly.
First of all, he had to break the morale of the rebel army, which was superior in numbers.
* * *
Nord Mountain.
It was where the gold mine, the money line of the Haup estate, was located.
There was a gold mine nearby, so it was a mountain that had only one small village, and it was difficult to find a human being.
In the small village, there were only people who were connected with gold mines.
Such a village has been in silence for the past few days.
“Have you not been to the neighboring village for a few days?”
“Two days have passed.”
“It’s still fine, but I’m worried that it will last longer.”
The villagers talked about various things.
The most talked-about thing was that the raiders had visited the gold mine, resulting in loss of life, and the rebels were on strict vigilance.
“Why do the authors come here?”
That was then.
Men in hoodies were coming to town with carts.
The sound of the wheels hitting the poorly maintained road was deafening.
The villagers looked at the men as if they were strange.
It was natural.
The fact that the soldiers guarding the gold mine had been attacked spread wildly around the area.
Are you still coming to this town?
It had to be weird.
“What else is going on?”
A villager murmured.
Recently, there have been rumors of gloomy people in hoodies roaming the Haup estate.
Even when the gold mines were attacked, unidentified men in hoodies roamed the villages and mines.
So, the villagers thought that people like him would come again this time.
“Ugh, I was kind of shy about those people.”
“Shh! Be careful. From what I heard in the big villages, they said that the Lord Seong-joo took special care of them. If I make fun of my mouth for nothing, I’m afraid I’ll end up in a terrible way.”
“Ah, who doesn’t know that? Why are you saying such a rude thing?”
The villagers ran into their houses one by one.
Because he didn’t want to shorten his lifeline by getting involved with suspicious people for nothing.
“Damn! What the hell is this chaos in the gold mines?”
A man from the village as he entered the house grumbled as if displeased.
It was.
All of this was due to gold mining.
And for a while, it was going to be noisy with gold mines.
* * *
Nord Mountain Gold Mine.
The gold mine, which was also the source of money for the Haup estate, was always noisy with the sound of mining for minerals.
However, the gold mine was cluttered by a recent raid.
There were no civilians among those killed in the raid.
Most of the soldiers guarding the gold mines died, so the lack of miners did not mean that the gold mines were not lively.
However, large-scale control was initiated in the Haup Territory.
It was impossible to stop the gold mining work, which had reduced money, but the raid could not be left unattended.
That’s why, by increasing the defense force and calling out miners separately, they were conducting investigations one by one.
It was suspicious of an insider.
The mine raid was meticulous.
It was a precise blow to the weakest part of the defending force.
Therefore, within the rebel group, the traitor was in mind.
As a result, the morale of the miners has bottomed out.
It was even weirder when the board being questioned was energized.
“Is that a gold mine?”
Ethan asked while looking at the mine.
“yes. There is no other mine like that in Nord Mountain.”
Christopher answered.
“There are more defenders than miners.”
“Probably because of Sir Conrad’s raid. It seems that the interrogation is going on inside, as the miners are sometimes dragged away. It appears that Sir Conrad’s party has not been captured. Fortunately, the.”
Ethan and the knights were looking down at the gold mines from the top of Mount Nord.
It was to scout gold mines.
“What is that?”
Dylan, who was watching the mountain quietly, noticed something and asked.
Workers were doing logging around the gold mine.
A post was being built in the area where logging was done.
Christopher looked closely at the post and opened his mouth.
“It looks like we are building a post for future attacks. Considering the size is quite large, the number of resident defense forces will increase further.”
Ethan agreed.
In fact, in the vicinity of the gold mine, an increasing number of troops were patrolling at a glance.
Christopher checked the faces of the soldiers.
“Fortunately, I don’t think he is an elite soldier. All the equipment you’re wearing belongs to the village guards. It seems that the troops were urgently called out from the small and large villages of the Haup Territory.”
It was a sharp point.
In fact, even if the soldiers were wearing swords, the length of the sword was short.
Is that all?
The old windows were bent and could be seen from afar.
This happened because the windows were not properly managed.
Round-shaped wooden shields were rare, and there were few soldiers wearing leather armor.
He was wearing an old cloth robe and armor woven from bark.
It was the standard level of equipment the village guards had.
“Sir Conrad attacked the gold mine with a small force, so it seems he decided that it would be a loss to deploy too many troops or elites.”
“right. It could be a trap.”
Ethan answered.
As Christopher said, being attracted to a small number of troops and deploying too many troops elsewhere could lead to defeat if done wrong.
‘It’s a sinister yet practical decision. This is what he did.’
The bookkeeper I saw in the cave must have given these instructions.
“First of all, the outpost has been established, so let’s find a place for Sir Conrad. Because that’s the priority.”
Ethan looked around widely and said.
The two knights also worked tirelessly to identify Mount Nord.
However, it was not easy to find a place where the knights could be.
Of course, of course it had to be.
Otherwise, it will be discovered by the rebels.
‘If this is the case, it will not be easy to join.’
Ethan clicked inwardly.
Ethan left Fenrir in the fortress because it was an operation that required confidentiality and also had the purpose of protecting the princess.
Therefore, it was difficult to find it using Fenrir.
‘Is that all that’s left?’
What if you can’t find it with your own two eyes?
“I’ll have to find it myself.”
“yes?”
Christopher looked at Ethan in a bewildered way.
But instead of answering, Ethan just looked at the vast mountain with his eyes.
* * *
A young man was climbing a rough mountain.
When he reached the top, the young man caught his breath, and with his hawk-sharp eyes, he looked at the road leading to the gold mine.
The mountain top was cool.
The temperature dropped sharply and there were only flying animals in the barren environment.
“Isn’t that too high?”
And Ethan, the young man who had climbed the mountain, grumbled.
The two knights were waiting at the bottom of the mountain.
Christopher and Dylan vehemently opposed being separated from Ethan.
But he couldn’t break Ethan’s stubbornness.
Eventually, the two separated from Ethan, and Ethan was free to climb the mountain alone.
“It’s over there.”
Ethan put all the paths in his head from the top of the mountain.
“Originally, it was only done with magical power, but let’s see if it can also be done with divine power.”
Ethan put his hand on the floor.
And spread the divine power thinly.
The divine power that spread in all directions headed the path Ethan had kept in his head.
and reached the road.
Ethan was very sensitive to the wave of divine power hitting the road.
He concentrated all his attention on it.
And Ethan felt a small wave on the road.
It was a wave of light divine power.
That was exactly what Ethan was looking for.
“right. Since I poured out my divine power, of course, there is bound to be a repercussion.”
Ethan smiled in conversion.
It was the divine power that Ethan chose as a way to find Konrad and the knights.
It had not been a long time since Ethan had cursed Konrad and the knights.
Naturally, the divine power had to remain in the body even though it was thin.
Ethan took advantage of that.
“There!”
Ethan found a place and his eyes lit up.
A wave of divine power was felt in a certain mountain range leading to the road.
It couldn’t be wrong.
Ethan flew the new model down the mountain again.