“Dodge!”
Pshyuuuuung.
Along with his exclamation, the sound of slicing wind stretches long, tearing the sky. The burning light cleaving the heavens as it flies looks as if someone is cutting the night sky with scissors. The fire arrow—no, the elongated rocket—fell toward the tent over there.
Right after,
Kaboom.
The deafening roar rang out a beat later. A transient sun rose over the camp. Shadows fell upon the tents, and a hot wind seized and shook them.
And screams. Fear and confusion spread with the people. Panic-stricken, they frantically dashed through the streets. The free people of Yeolguk are always ready to flee. Now, that ability was fully demonstrated.
Frowning at the firelight, Peru asked.
“…What’s going on?”
“I don’t know! It’s an attack. Could it be the military state?”
‘…Incoming shells? No. If the aim were tactical strikes, noisy shells would be inefficient. Creating chaos scatters the jackals. This is not a soldier’s method, but a hunter’s.’
“…No. This method.”
Before Peru, who had recalled someone, could utter the name, the explosions formed a voice and proclaimed their identity.
[Lord Rocket announces to you.]
A strange voice. Each separate part was deafening and noisy explosions, yet they were cunningly linked to take on a single person’s voice.
Auditory pointillism. Whatever technique was mixed in, it was hard to guess without reading thoughts.
Meanwhile, the squad leader recognized the name and muttered.
“Rocket? The Heat Explosion Guild Master?”
[The great Golden King has commanded you. Strike the military state.]
The Guild Master of Heat and Explosion. Individually terrifying, but together somehow a pitiful title. If I ever meet him face-to-face, I’ll ask if it was intentional. If he gets mad, it was intentional.
The Heat Explosion Guild Master’s voice continued.
[But these pig bastards set up camp and are clustered together licking each other’s arseholes. Only intent on stuffing their own bellies! Why didn’t you leave? Why don’t you obey orders?!]
He scolded the unspecified multitude with an irritable voice. Someone muttered ‘I was going to go…’, an excuse that wasn’t an excuse, but there was no way his voice would carry.
And probably, the other side wouldn’t want to hear it anyway.
[What you eat. What you wear. What you burn. All of it was made by the Golden King. Everything that makes you up was bestowed by the Golden King! Our god is the Golden King! And yet you all! You hear the god’s orders and ignore them!]
And a spoonful of blasphemy on top.
[Then I will make you follow! I, Lord Rocket, the faithful servant of the Golden King. From now on, the apostate hunt begins!]
As his shout ended, the sound of dozens of trajectories tearing through the air was heard. Time, which had paused momentarily, flowed again. The people who had stopped to listen to the voice began running again. Behind the fleeing figures, Lord Rocket’s shouts were scattered.
[If you want to live, leave! Plunder! As the Golden King commanded…! The only gold and silver you can have! Is the guaranteed plunder of the military state!]
Oh my. What a mess. Are they plundering here? Fellow people of Yeolguk?
I feel like I slightly understand why Yeolguk was defeated by the military state in just seven days.
At that moment, a horrific tragedy occurred in front of the tent tavern.
As if stepping out of a fairy tale book, a surreal and beautiful silver-haired girl appeared. Dressed in a gown with a pitch-black parasol slung over her shoulder, the girl walked unflinchingly through the unfamiliar place.
Saying she had met the king of the Gold State, that she would reward anyone who knew the location of the Golden Palace. Only speaking unrealistic words, but because the speaker herself was so unreal, no one questioned her. She seemed like a fairy from a fairy tale, a fantasy soon to vanish…
But who would have thought she would vanish by being directly hit by a rocket flying across the sky?
Her arm broke and her body was pierced. Beside the bright red flame, dark red blood blossomed. Someone murmured that a human body resembles a flower, and just as that, those who finally realized what had happened screamed.
“Kyaaaah!”
“A person! A person died!”
“Is that even a person?”
“Whatever!”
As people finally grasped the situation a beat late due to shock and tried to flee in panic.
“I’m not dead.”
The girl, whose limbs had appeared severed by the rocket, opened her mouth. From where she was thought to be impaled, a deep darkness welled up and swallowed the rocket. The rocket, half submerged in darkness, only flickered pitifully with dying flames.
The girl looked at the rocket with red eyes. The emotion in those eyes… was nothing but displeasure.
“One. A fire arrow carrying flames… deeply displeasing. I was trying to gather information in my own way for once.”
But no one heard her voice. Because everyone fled from a terror greater than the rocket.
At that moment. Aji was running on the ground.
It was hard to put into human language, but if I dared to guess her thought, it was ‘joy’. So far, Aji had snatched flying things with her mouth, and the result mostly ended in joy. By inductive reasoning, she concluded that doing the same action again would yield the same result.
Moreover, the twinkling fire strangely stimulated her hunting instinct. Where else would there be a tail that burned so distinctly?
So Aji ran. Straight toward where the rocket fell.
Fortunately, she smelled it before the explosion. Aji instinctively changed direction and jumped upward.
“Yelp!”
Flames engulfed Aji. Aji cried sorrowfully. She wasn’t badly hurt, but the roar, smoke, and flames were stressful in themselves. Aji desperately fled from there.
Too startled, Aji ran toward the only person she could trust.
The dog’s most precious friend, a human.
At that moment. Someone opened her eyes. Hearing the explosion, she rose as if waiting and murmured.
“Finally appeared. Waited long. I scattered gold of understanding and thought they’d show up soon…”
But then, seeing the voice that followed and the rockets embroidering the sky, she narrowed her brow.
“…Ugh. But why is a Juggernaut coming? And from outside the camp? The effect’s too fast? Anyway.”
Just then, a rocket flew toward her. But something like this no longer brings any thrill. The regressor flicked her wrist shortly, and with that trajectory, the rocket split in half and exploded.
It certainly must have been threatening. A thick chunk of metal flying at high speed with an explosion risk. A weapon and means that could threaten her life.
But now, it was just one of the trivial problems her body had countermeasures engraved for.
Even the owner of that rocket.
“I’ll just catch him and ask.”
Regressor Shei muttered dryly.
The Guild Master of Heat and Explosion, the Heat Explosion Guild Master. Even from a rough listen, he seems very hot-tempered. Considering that one’s unique magic is subtly influenced by personality, even a poke might make him explode.
Personality aside, the fact that he carries bombs bothers me. A person more dangerous than a hothead is a hothead who uses bombs that resemble him. Because the former kills himself, but the latter kills others.
Whether he kills himself is none of my business, but if he kills others, it becomes something I should know. It was when I, full of fear, was about to close the tent and hold out.
The squad leader threw open the tent and rushed out.
“Don’t act rashly! The opponent is the Heat Explosion Guild Master!”
The squad leader stood tall in the middle of the road, blocking fleeing people and yelling.
“His direct subordinates all have Heat Explosion Guild Master’s thrusters! You can’t escape anyway. Resist here!”
Perhaps his words were the most rational response. Explosions are threatening and noisy but less dangerous than one thinks. An explosion is dispersion; firepower spreads in all directions. If one knows even a little qi control, one can cancel out shrapnel and heat with the principle of reflective qi.
The real danger is not the rockets… but the crazy bastards riding them. Against them, resisting together is several times more advantageous than being caught while running separately.
But humans are clumsily rational.
“Don’t be ridiculous! You fight. I’m leaving!”
If everyone resisted together, they might be able to fight even the Heat Explosion Guild Master. But if I run while others resist, I’m definitely safe.
Because of that dilemma, the jackals of the camp all chose to flee. As a result, the camp’s jackals were defeated before even fighting.
With no one to fight for them, unable to even secure their own safety.
“Everyone to the north gate!”
“Then why are you heading to the south gate! You’re trying to use us as bait!”
“Shut up! Just go out the nearest gate!”
Flashing wits are used solely to deceive each other. Tumult turns to war cries directed at each other. Even in the midst of it, the scene of them grabbing as much of their stuff as possible while fleeing is consistent.
The alchemists who had set up stalls were slower to start than them. Toward those belatedly packing to flee, the squad leader shouted.
“Fools! Don’t go! Here is safest! Here is…!”
‘Here is the Remaining Green Guild Master! The nemesis of alchemists!!’
Pshyuuuuung.
Just then, a rocket tore through the tent and fell right before the squad leader’s nose. The alchemists scattered in panic.
The squad leader could dodge, but Peru was behind. Planning to block it with his body, he infused qi into the tent and stepped forward.
That moment.
“…Before me.”
The flame burning on the wick died down.
Not only that. The ignition mechanism that created the flame. The brass cylinder. Could no longer maintain its form and crumbled. The fire turned to ash and smoke, the steel rusted and corroded, scattering.
While everyone stood gaping, Peru drew back the tent and stepped onto the street. Stepping on the shattered steel, Peru murmured lowly.
“…Nothing shines.”
The rocket shattered and rusted in an instant. The alchemists who saw it involuntarily groaned.
“Remaining Green Guild Master?”
After Peru’s appearance, conflicting emotions flickered across the alchemist merchants’ faces. One was relief at being saved, the other… was fear of permanent loss.
A fear reached from understanding rather than instinctive horror. The alchemists hesitated and hugged their possessions as they backed away.
The reason is simple.
The Remaining Green Guild Master, Peru’s power renders the alchemists’ possessions… precious metals or items ‘useless’.
In Yeolguk, ‘useless’ has a slightly different meaning. With alchemy that freely converts materials, metal always has value equal to its weight. If no longer needed, you can alchemize it again.
But Peru extinguishes even the value of weight.
Leaving only shattered remnants of residual green, unusable anywhere.
“W-We survived… but…”
“Th-That ability…”
Whether to save their lives, or their property that is no different from life. The alchemists agonized repeatedly.
Geez. How gutsy. To weigh life and money on a scale and agonize. Let me tell you the answer.
“Hey! You there! We helped them so you can’t even praise us, let alone…”
I’ll scold sternly and push them as my bullet shields. It was when I was choosing my next words.