#61
The Eve of the Storm (2)
“Wahahahat—! Now this is nice! I like it very much!”
Harley burst into a satisfied laugh as he stroked his new helmet.
—A helmet crafted by a highly skilled artisan from the head of a monster gray bear. Absorbent material has been packed into the extra space, granting it outstanding effectiveness in mitigating external shocks. It was made as a single piece so that the tough hide could cover the shoulders and back.
It was a custom-made item fashioned from the monster head he had set aside just before rescuing Cecily and returning to the city, to replace his ruined black panther helmet.
Since Tarak’s mercenary industry was well developed, the overall skill of its craftsmen was high, and the result was quite excellent.
This, too, was the result of Hubert wearing out his shoes in search of a skilled artisan and placing the commission.
As a bonus, he had also replaced all his monster-fang accessories, returning once more to the perfect image of a barbarian warrior.
“But still, saying they won’t sell a weapon unless the person who’ll use it comes in person. Craftsmen sure are picky fellows.”
If there was one thing he had yet to obtain, it was only a weapon for Harley to use.
Hubert had found a fairly good weapon while touring the blacksmith street, but the craftsman who made it had drawn a firm line, saying he would not sell it unless the actual user came in person.
‘Well, going there myself isn’t much of a problem. I like it a lot, too.’
Because of that, Harley was once again striding proudly through the streets of Tarak today.
Everyone whispered among themselves, but no one dared say anything to him, merely avoiding his gaze.
But that situation did not last long.
“Keh, what’s with that tacky getup? He’s bringing shame on the South all by himself.”
A complaint spat out without even lowering his voice, as if meant to be heard.
Harley’s steps came to a halt.
His gaze slowly turned toward the source of the voice.
‘Now this is a different kind of situation.’
To think someone could say something like that even after seeing this imposing appearance.
Just what sort of brave soul was it?
At the side of the road where Harley’s gaze landed, three men had gathered together, frowning as they stared at him.
Each of them had an above-average build, broad shoulders, and firm muscles, giving off the impression of seasoned warriors.
If they had one thing in common, it was that various tattoos were engraved all over their bodies.
Even after meeting Harley’s eyes, they showed no sign of hesitation and raised their voices even further.
“Look at him strutting around like a warrior when he doesn’t even have the qualifications.”
“What are those clumsy scribbles? Trying to imitate Engravings or something?”
“Is he even a real Southerner? Those mismatched eyes, too. Is he mixed-blood?”
…Judging by the way they spoke, they seemed to be genuine warriors from the South.
Since Tarak had a developed mercenary industry, it was not strange to encounter people who had drifted in from other regions like this.
He had changed his facial structure as much as possible to resemble Southerners according to the information he had gathered in advance, but to locals, it must have felt off.
‘What I need at times like this is shamelessness.’
He spread his shoulders wide and approached them with confident steps.
Because Harley, a real man among men, did not avoid a quarrel that walked up to him.
“Are you insulting this body right now! As a warrior, I have not a single thing to be ashamed of! You seem to be warriors of the South as well, so why are you nitpicking this magnificent appearance?”
Naturally brushing past the suspicions that he was a fake Southerner and fixing the point of contention on his attire, he stood before the warriors and looked down at them.
Their builds were by no means small, but standing before Harley, their eye levels differed by more than half a head.
“Hah! It’s because of guys like you that all Southerners get lumped together and mocked!”
“Wear clothes like that at traditional festivals. Don’t strut around proudly in a place like this!”
“There’s no way you could fight properly in such an inefficient outfit. Seeing as you don’t have a single scar on you, you’re just a clown who only built up his muscles, aren’t you?”
Their attire consisted of ordinary armor made of leather with metal plates added in places, the very image of average mercenaries.
It was a very unfortunate reality.
‘I knew it already, but it’s disappointing. To think this is an era where the romance of barbarian warriors has already vanished.’
Even after several more exchanges of arguments, the gap between their views did not narrow.
“We’re getting nowhere! Then there’s only one way to settle this at times like this, isn’t there? Hahaha!”
Among the information he had researched in advance about the South, there had been one thing that left a particularly strong impression on him.
The custom that, when conflicts arose between warriors, they enforced their claims through barehanded combat.
It was a tough method of competing purely with the strength of the body, using neither weapons nor aura.
“If you’re dissatisfied, don’t just flap your mouths—prove it with your skills.”
“You halfwit without a single Engraving…!”
At the refreshing provocation, one of them ground his teeth.
After handing the weapon he was holding to his companion beside him, he stepped forward, and in an instant, a fighting ring formed around him and Harley.
“I don’t mind if all three of you come at me at once.”
“What do you take a warrior’s honor for! I alone am enough!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
A savage smile formed on Harley’s lips, and his muscles slowly swelled.
Because of his attire, his muscles were plainly exposed, and every striation seemed to come alive as they writhed fiercely.
Flinch!
The Southerner standing opposite him unconsciously flinched, but perhaps because he was confident in his own skill, he did not step back.
Of course, his confidence did not last long.
Thud!
“Kek.”
“Next—!”
One.
“Urgh—!”
“Neeext!”
Two.
Crack!
“Ghk… You’re not a Southerner! To have this level of skill and not a single warrior’s Engraving!”
And then the last one.
From the beginning, there was no way they, as humans, could defeat this body with physical strength alone.
Their fists could not inflict any significant damage on Harley’s solid muscles, and the gap in their strength was so vast it could not even be compared…
‘To be honest, it was an unfair fight from the start.’
His body, already no different from a monster’s, was in a state of constant enhancement from the vital force naturally flowing through it, even without deliberately using aura.
‘More importantly, this might actually be a good chance.’
He looked down at the Southerners sprawled on the ground.
Unexpectedly, he had picked up genuine warriors from the South while walking down the street.
It was a meeting between Harley, a fake Southern man, and the locals.
‘If I play this right, there might be something I can use these guys for…’
He immediately relaxed his expression and burst into a hearty laugh.
“Hahaha! Well now, you brothers have quite the skill!”
“Bro… brothers?”
“We may have fought for a moment over a difference of opinion, but to meet people from the same homeland, carrying the same blood, in this distant foreign land—this too is fate! At this point, could we not call each other brothers? Hahat!”
“What kind of bullshit is tha…”
“Now, now!”
When he fixed a steady glare on the fellow who was trying to tack on useless objections, the man quietly averted his gaze.
“Ahem! As you’ve probably guessed already, the truth is, I’m not entirely from the South.”
“Then why do you look like…”
“Tsk—!”
With the rude fellows who kept picking at his words, he briefly shared a physical conversation that was good for the body.
Then, after taking the now quickly courteous men into an alley, he was able to have another serious conversation with them.
“There’s a deep reason behind all of this, you see. Now, where should I begin…”
And as groundwork to rationalize his origins and coax them over, he slowly began to run his mouth and lay the bait.
“I heard my father was a warrior who made a name for himself even in the South. Ah, don’t ask who he was. That’s just what I was told, so I don’t know the details either. In any case…”
A sudden confession of his past began.
The warriors looked dubious, but since the hierarchy had already been settled after a round of fighting, they had no choice but to listen quietly without saying a word.
And so a long, detailed love story continued.
A story that began with a fateful meeting encountered by a warrior of the South.
A woman from a foreign land who had been the worst possible first impression to him, yet fate kept binding the two together…
Misunderstandings and conflicts born from differences in values, and then reconciliation.
After going through various incidents and overcoming the gap in status, they fell in love.
But their trials were not yet over…
For the daughter of a tribal chief, who had taken a liking to the warrior, began to interfere with their relationship.
In the end, the warrior rejected the chief’s daughter’s courtship and chose to elope with the woman of his destiny.
At that, the woman, her pride wounded by having been rejected, sent pursuers after them…
After all sorts of hardships, they came to take refuge in a slash-and-burn village in the West.
By then, the fruit of their love had already taken form between them…
“Yes. That was this body.”
Harley finished speaking and looked around.
Gulp—
“…A-and then what happened?”
“Brother, don’t stop there. Hurry up and tell us.”
The Southern men, who at first had listened with frowning faces as though forced, were now completely immersed in his story.
‘It’s just a story I cobbled together by roughly mixing clichés. It’s working better than I thought.’
Well, they were common materials on Earth, but in this place, it would be an exciting story.
On top of that, since the South was a collection of numerous tribal alliances, the development did seem like something that could happen.
“Ahem… But the tragedy did not end there. The persistent villainess, the tribal chief’s daughter, reached even that far with her claws. The family of three, who had dreamed of a happy life…”
And of course, no story could be complete without some “K-melodrama.”
Harley slowly closed his eyes and poured emotion into his tale.
The pursuers who tightened their net with each passing moment, the father’s tearful struggle to save his wife and child.
After repeating flight and battle, he succeeded in defeating all the pursuers, but in the end, the warrior collapsed from grievous wounds.
The child, knowing nothing, laughed innocently in his mother’s arms.
The warrior… the father, with trembling hands, placed the beast-fang ornament he wore around the child’s neck.
‘If I’m gone, you must protect your mother now. I will… together with that necklace, watch over you until the very end…’
The father collapsed without finishing his words, and the mother wailed.
And…
The will of the warrior was inherited by the child.
After that, no more pursuers came, but it was not easy for a woman alone to raise a child.
Yet she raised the child firmly and proudly.
Every night, she missed her late husband, and telling the child stories of those memories became the joy of her life.
‘Mother! What kind of person was Father?’
‘He was a very wonderful man. Truly the model of a warrior. Once, there was a time when…’
Listening to his mother’s stories with sparkling eyes, the child gripped the memento left by his father tightly in his hand and nurtured his dream of becoming a great warrior.
And then…
Tragedy came again.
“…I buried that ornament together with my mother. I thought she, who had loved him her entire life and longed for my father until the very end, needed it more. For me, simply inheriting my father’s will was enough.”
That is why I, who have never even set foot in the South, go around looking like this…
Speaking in a solemn voice filled with emotion, Harley squeezed his eyes shut once more.
With a brief silence, the long story came to an end.
And then…
“Kheup… kuh-heuk!”
“Brother… Brother! You are a proud son of the South!”
“Indeed! As long as that will is inherited, you are already a fine Southerner. As for the knowledge you lack, we will, in your father’s stead… khuheup…!”
The warriors, unable to come to their senses after tasting the spicy flavor of “K-melodrama” that boasted a long history and tradition, shed tears.
Just when they seemed to have barely calmed down, they looked at Harley’s face and began sobbing for quite some time all over again.
‘Was it too effective? It’ll be troublesome if they keep this up.’
“Hahaha! There’s no need to worry so much! This body has now become a fine warrior!”
Harley burst into a hearty laugh to change the atmosphere, but…
“You… grew up well. You really grew up well.”
“Indeed, what does it matter if he has no Engravings? At that level, he’s already a fine warrior!”
The warriors looked at him with oddly proud smiles.
Like real men, they seemed to have already forgotten the fact that he had beaten them just moments ago.
‘These guys seem to be way too immersed.’
They had the air of people looking at him as though he were their own son.
Young warriors who looked, at most, to be in their thirties...
“Ahem, anyway. So, I have all sorts of fantasies about the South, but the truth is I don’t really know much about it. I’m here because I’m not ready yet, but someday I do intend to head south, to the homeland of my heart.”
At his words, the southern warriors all nodded with serious expressions.
“Indeed, with no one to teach you, that must have been a problem.”
“But don’t worry, brother! Meeting like this is fate, so we’ll teach you properly about the true spirit of the South!”
“Right. We’ll make you into someone your father would be proud to see.”
‘Great. I’ll be able to get a pinpoint lecture from local instructors.’
He had planned to talk his way through it and, if they seemed unconvinced, force them to accept it, but they were even simpler than he had expected.
Harley burst into a satisfied laugh and nodded.
“Ahahaha! If you’ll do that for me, I’d be grateful! Come to think of it, we haven’t even introduced ourselves. My name is Harley!”
And so, he was able to make new subordinates... no, friends.
Whenever they had spare time, he could have them help out a little with the work of Hubert, “Harley’s best friend,” too.
After all, a friend of a friend was also a friend!
‘I’ll have to think up the part about young Harley’s journey where he meets Hubert.’
Thus, Harley in Tarak, Hubert absorbed in preparing the business, and Heinz busy managing Heterosis on Earth.
Now that time flowed equally for each of them,
the situations of the remaining two avatars were reaching their climax.
***
Hans cleaned up the laboratory he had grown attached to after staying there for several months.
The High Elf’s search of this area would begin soon.
If he removed the surrounding trees in advance, or canceled his summoning at the right timing, he could avoid the search, but he did not make any particular preparations to evade it.
[Kekeke, there’s no need for that anymore.]
Yet even after the scheduled time passed, he sensed no sign of anything.
Surely there should have been some kind of omen by now...
‘Has the schedule changed? Or are they searching somewhere else first?’
Perhaps they could not find him because he was inside the barrier of the cave.
He had been tense in his own way, but now the tension drained right out of him.
However.
It was still a little too early to voice such thoughts.
At the same time.
The Great Temple of Roselia.
The High Elf Lafori summoned those involved in the operation.
“We found him.”
The eyes of the church officials widened.
Of course, Heinrich, who was present with them, was no exception.
‘I was on edge the whole time, but I didn’t sense anything unusual. When?’
He had not felt even the slightest sign, yet it seemed the search had already been completed before he knew it.
‘They’re even more impressive than I expected.’
As he looked around at the people who seemed excited, Lafori continued in a firm voice.
“In the west of the continent, the Forest of Demonic Beasts. The Immortal King’s aura was detected there.”
Hans’s location had finally been exposed.