Episode 173
Swish. Squelch-!
Splattered blood dyes pure white eyes red.
“Rini!”
“Going in!”
Black hair facing off against a massive demonic beast.
Having shed her girlish appearance, Rini of Zelvan swings her sword.
Slash-!
Thud!
The demonic beast’s head falls.
But that is not the end.
At the sight of the demonic beasts surging in succession, Rivan, who is with Rini, thrusts his sword.
The twin siblings, Rivan and Rini.
Along with the demonic beasts pouncing on them, someone’s sword strike sweeps in.
Slaaash-!!
Along with the demonic beasts being torn to pieces, a figure drops to the ground.
“Flora!”
“I’m coming right now! You guys help too! That bastard is alone now!”
Brown-haired Flora.
The Flora who was the alley boss of Kaladi is no more.
There is only a silver brooch pinned, proving her place as the Academy’s second seat.
And at the end of her run.
“Damn brats, how dare you!!”
A lady facing off against a follower controlling the demonic beasts with bloodshot eyes.
A girl with black hair, the symbol of Zelvan, maintaining a sharply cut bob.
No, she has grown enough to be called a lady, wearing a gold brooch as the Academy’s top seat.
Emily von Zelvan was there.
“Thoughts on getting beaten by that brat?”
“Beat me? I wasn’t beaten...”
Drip.
Something trickled down; wiping it with her hand, it was blood.
‘When did...!’
Her cheek was slashed in the blink of an eye.
She forcibly calmed her startled heart, trying not to show her agitation, but.
Whoosh-!
“It’s already too late.”
Emily, who had somehow closed in right in front of his nose, drove her sword into the follower’s chest.
“How, already... Those guys were reinforced with my threads and stakes!”
Stab! Crunch!
Along with the sound of the breastbone shattering.
Emily answered calmly.
“Hunting demonic beasts is the fate given to Zelvan. Besides, I’ve already killed enough to be sick of it three years ago.”
I wonder if that was an answer.
“Keuk!”
Along with the follower’s blood-tinged groan.
The sight of the demonic beasts split in half and dead reflected in the follower’s eyes.
In an instant, she had slaughtered four demonic beasts and plunged her sword into his chest.
The threads wrapped around the follower’s hands had long since been torn.
It was a perfect defeat.
Thud.
“I came to help, but I guess it wasn’t needed.”
Flora, who had run over hastily, scratched the back of her head in embarrassment.
Swipe.
Emily pulled her sword from the follower’s corpse and cleanly flicked off the blood as she spoke.
“Followers are disciples of the Thread God. Their own physical strength is negligible.”
No matter how negligible their own physical strength was.
Flora wanted to say they weren’t enemies an Academy student could kill so easily, but she held her tongue.
Because she knew her strength better than anyone.
‘Monster.’
A monster who could effortlessly defeat ordinary full-fledged knights at the age of fifteen.
A prodigy evaluated by all the Academy professors as having the skill to be bestowed a knighthood long ago.
The real deal whom even Pope Philice, who taught her and them, praised without reserve, calling her a genius that made even them click their tongue in wonder.
‘She even makes a habit of saying things like, “Quit the Academy right now and take a high position in the Order.”’
Slaying disciples of a foreign god wasn’t even much of a bragging point for her.
“But it seems they set traps instead. We had a pretty hard time.”
Approaching Rivan shuddered as he recalled the moment they fell for the followers’ trap.
How could he not, when he nearly lost his head to the threads set up all over the forest.
The followers’ traps were simple, but just as powerful.
“So annoying, seriously. If it weren’t for these guys, we could have comfortably completed this practical exam while staying in the North!”
As if feeling the same way, Rini trampled on the follower’s corpse.
“It can’t be helped. It’s practically a wartime situation right now anyway.”
Originally, they had come to the North to take the Academy’s practical exam.
But somehow, the Academy professors started disappearing one by one, and these guys called followers were running rampant in the North.
So they were also dealing with the stray followers to help the North in their own way.
“It’s my hometown after so long, and they completely ruined the mood.”
“Well, you’re right about that.”
“Still, if we do well here, they’ll reward us whether it’s Zelvan or the Royal Family. I’ll be satisfied with that.”
Unlike the energetic Flora.
The sibling pair Rivan and Rini had reluctant expressions.
“What’s wrong?”
“Just, it reminds me of three years ago.”
Three years ago.
He must be talking about the Orc Invasion War.
“Emily, you’re thinking about that time too, right? You experienced the war following Lord Calias. Back then, it was truly... Even thinking about it now, it was a horrific and glorious day.”
“Why glorious if it was horrific?”
Flora asked.
Rini puffed out her chest proudly and said.
“Because it was the day Lord Calias became a hero. Why wouldn’t it be glorious!”
“Wow... I’m a bit jealous of that.”
“...There’s nothing to be jealous of. The number of soldiers and knights who died in the North back then exceeded four digits.”
Behind a brilliant hero’s epic, fierce deaths are always piled up.
“That is a bit sad...”
Rini puffing her cheeks, and the pessimistic Rivan.
Flora simply finding it fascinating, and Emily fondling her sword with an indifferent expression.
The red thread tied to the demonic beast caught her eye.
“This is quite tough.”
“Ah, yeah. It’s probably like the corpses, a thread made of humans. I said it was tougher than expected, I almost couldn’t cut the demonic beast’s neck for a moment.”
*Should I call it the Main Thread?* Emily thought, as the red thread slipped from her hand.
“Emily. But what are these stakes?”
“I’m not exactly sure, but I think it has a similar concept to the threads.”
Looking at the parts where stakes or iron spikes were driven in, it seemed plausible.
Head and neck.
Starting from the spine, they are slightly driven into the joints of the arms and legs.
Threads were also wrapped around them.
Seeing the two embedded together, it was reasonable to assume they brainwashed, as well as reinforced, the demonic beasts.
“Then should we aim for the threads or stakes next time?”
“It’d be better to just cut their necks.”
“No. They’re being controlled either way. Even if their heads fall off, they might still move for a while.”
Originally, even demonic beasts sometimes move for a while after their heads are cut off.
She suddenly called Rini.
“Rini.”
At Emily’s gesture toward the north with her chin, Rini widened her eyes.
With Rini’s eyes, which surpassed human vision, she could even see far away.
Dubbed the Thousand-Mile Eye.
“Ah, it’s the professors.”
*Are they returning after completing their operation?*
Rini’s expression, which had been thinking that, crumpled.
“What is it?”
“It doesn’t look like a good thing.”
Rivan, roughly inferring just from Rini’s expression, grabbed his sword.
“The professors are being chased.”
The professorship at the Royal Academy is not a position just anyone can arbitrarily take.
Most are nobles, but most are also those who have held the position of captain.
The fact that they are being chased meant.
“It’s not someone we can handle.”
The hand holding the sword trembled.
No.
“The ground...”
The ground is shaking.
Thud, thud. Thud, thud.
It has come close enough to be visible now.
Trees break, the forest is ruined, and mountain birds flap noisily.
“Run away!”
Crunch! Craaash-!
Splatter!!
“Kyaah!”
Something flew and burst.
Like a red cherry exploding.
“Don’t look.”
“B-Brother...”
Rivan’s eyes furrowed.
‘Professor Rhines.’
Burst into a mushy pulp.
It looked as if he was grabbed and torn apart by something massive, then thrown.
Meaning there was something that could grab a human, throw them, and make them burst.
Thud, thud, thud!
This massive vibration sound must also be its doing.
Gulp.
This is just like.
‘The overwhelming pressure from when I saw the Orc Warlord.’
The powerlessness felt in the previous war.
The intimidation of the Orc Warlord.
However, twice as sinister as that, an inexplicable killing intent is sharply spread out.
“W-Why are you guys here!”
“P-Professor! Professor Rhines is...”
“Dodge!!”
Crunch!
The professor who told them to dodge, yet couldn’t dodge himself.
He was hit directly by a massive club and burst like squashed dough.
They weren’t particularly close, but seeing two professors they had seen coming and going for years die horrifically, Rini and Rivan, as well as Flora, instantly froze.
“That, that’s a...”
A height five times greater than a human’s.
Clumsy but massive hands.
Solid muscles on its thighs and shoulders.
And a giant club dyed red.
Stakes and threads driven all over its body.
“Troll...”
It was a troll.
A troll reinforced by the followers, at that.
Dubbed, the Reinforced Troll.
“W-We have to run...”
Running is the right choice.
It’s a troll that even the professors couldn’t handle.
Didn’t they just keep running only to die vainly in the end?
No matter how much stronger they’ve gotten, they are absolutely no match for a troll yet.
As Rivan muttered that.
Whoosh-!
Flora fired a flare into the sky.
“Emily.”
And then she called Emily with a serious face.
“Why.”
“You’re going to fight, right?”
“Yeah.”
An immediate answer.
Flora grinned, holding a dagger in her left hand.
And a longsword in her right.
“Crazy, you’re going to fight!?”
As Rivan found it absurd, Emily calmly spoke so as not to provoke the troll.
“Even the professors couldn’t run away from it. We might have the upper hand in speed, but we’re outmatched in stamina.”
“Besides, there’s nowhere to run. Everyone around here has been attacked by them, right?”
The two had already finished assessing the situation.
Fired the flare.
Fight until reinforcements arrive.
Only that thought was in their heads.
Strictly speaking, they were only buying time, though.
‘Even if reinforcements come...’
It wouldn’t be too hopeful.
Because it was a formidable enemy strong enough to kill two professors in an instant.
“There must be someone controlling the troll.”
“You two find that guy!”
Immediately after the words ended.
Boom-!
The troll’s club struck the ground where they had been standing. The snowfield spread across the ground surged up like a wave and scattered.
Through that gap.
Emily and Flora broke through and aimed for the troll’s thigh.
Slash-! Swish!
-Gwooooh!
“It’s shallow! The skin is tougher than I thought!”
They clearly slashed it, but there was zero damage.
Emily’s face, who had also aimed for the threads wrapped around its leg, grew serious.
It was different from the previous demonic beasts.
Even the threads wrapped around it were incredibly hard.
Furthermore, its movements were not dull at all.
Fast.
It charges using its own body as a shield.
It swings its own hands as weapons.
Added to that, the club strikes loaded with its weight possessed destructive power close to instant death with a single hit, so they couldn’t rashly launch big attacks.
On top of that, the troll’s tremendous regeneration, which healed even scratches in an instant, broke their will.
At Flora’s shouting voice, Emily fell into thought.
Three years ago from now.
Her father had said.
That there was a troll at the very bottom. He clearly said he caught that guy and made it out.
‘Father was weak back then.’
Calias grew stronger amidst the battlefield. Emily knew that fact better than anyone else.
Because a child could only see their father’s back.
That brilliantly shining back of her father.
A hero’s back.
Emily had never missed it for a single moment.
‘Pianhua.’
The technique that ended the war.
Pianhua.
It was contained in the heart of the child who had looked at the hero’s back for a long time.
And that soon.
Manifests from the sword of the child who is now becoming a knight.
The silver sword qi, fluttering like smoke, slowly condenses.
The condensed sword qi forms like a thin membrane, creating another blade.
However, Emily’s expression is not good.
Only the outer appearance is similar.
This is a hollow shell.
No matter how much she tried to imitate it, she couldn’t replicate her father’s.
So she created it. Her own sword.
“Black Thorn.”
Shred-!
In her sword was Calias.
And the teachings of Pope Philice, who had taught her over the past two years, were imbued.
Powerful penetrating force and.
-U, wueeeek!
The Pope’s wave was imbued.
“Nice, Emily!”
They landed a hit on the troll.
A small joy, but it soon loomed over them as despair.
“The sword...!”
The sword driven into its side wouldn’t pull out. The troll, which had been clutching its head and vomiting, soon let out a rough snort.
Boom-!
The club swung in an instant.
Emily let go of her sword and dodged, but couldn’t completely avoid it.
“Ugh!”
Emily, who tumbled in the snowfield, quickly stood up and threw her body again.
Craaash-! Bang! Bang! Bang-!
-Grrrrrr!!
Perhaps deeply enraged, it ignored Flora’s sword and only aimed for Emily.
Adding to that.
Crunch, crack, squelch!
“Emily!”
It broke Emily’s sword.
The first gift he had ever given her.
Her father’s first gift, and the sword used by the Saint Esther.
Lucen. When it broke, Emily, unlike herself, couldn’t hide her agitation.
A knight without a sword is no knight.
A momentary agitation.
The sorrow of breaking her father’s gift.
The anger toward the troll that did it.
A battle that could no longer be continued.
Those things instantly stiffened Emily’s body.
And this ended up leading to an incomprehensible blunder in an urgent battle.
Smash-!
The club swung horizontally.
Unable to dodge, she reinforced her shoulder with divine power and tried to block it, but.
Crunch!
“Urgh!”
Craaash-!
She flew in an instant, and the impact only stopped after breaking a few trees.
“Uwek!”
Her brain was shaken.
She felt nauseous.
Whether her internal organs were injured, she vomited blood.
The shoulder that blocked the troll’s attack was completely shattered.
“Emily!! Damn it-!”
Flora swung her sword repeatedly, but the troll didn’t care about its wounds.
It only looked at Emily and charged.
In a desperate crisis.
Rustle.
In Emily’s vision, turned red with blood, some snowflake fell.
With her ears ringing and her consciousness unclear.
Emily’s pupils turned upward at the grey snowflake slowly falling.
‘Snow... no. Is it ash?’
A judgment she found absurd even as she thought it.
Ash, not snow, in the North.
Like melted, stretched candy, so was her hearing. Her vision also slowly blurred.
The troll charging at her.
Flora’s voice desperately calling out to her, following behind.
In a situation where everything was blurry and seemed to stretch, only one thing.
“You haven’t changed.”
The longing voice made Emily’s blurring eyes clear.
The back shown to her.
He was wearing a robe, but Emily immediately knew who he was.
That back.
Was the back she always looked at and chased.
“Dad...”
Along with tears welling up.
In an instant.
Ash-grey filled the world.