Chapter 174
Somewhere in the North.
A place surrounded on all sides by dense forest.
However, all sorts of magical beasts and knights standing blankly as if they had lost their minds occupied that place simultaneously.
Their bodies shared a few common traits—they all had threads, stakes, or iron needles embedded in them.
Between them, standing as if guarding something.
There were several individuals connected to threads emerging from a massive sphere.
Threads connected to needles in their heads.
And dozens of needles inserted in their fingers—several followers were sitting there.
In that place filled only with silence.
Suddenly, a follower let out a groan.
"What happened."
"Number 7... Number 7 is dead...!"
Number 7.
Unlike the seated followers, a man stood with his hands behind his back.
Politan asked the dry-heaving follower in return.
"Who got to it?"
Number 7 meant the enhanced troll.
The followers who had thread-connected needles directly implanted into their bodies were each connected to one troll. Trolls didn't possess strong mental fortitude, but a troll was still a troll.
This much was necessary to properly control and directly manipulate them.
That much more enhanced, and the controllable range had also increased.
But such a troll had been taken down.
As the person in charge, Politan had no choice but to ask again.
"Was it taken down by the Zerban army?"
Even as Politan asked, he felt puzzled. Because currently, the Zerban army was being engaged by trolls with other numbers and the magical beast corps.
Even hundreds of Northern troops would struggle to deal with a single troll, yet a troll moving to another location had died without warning.
A clear loss of military strength.
They had to find out the reason.
"N-no. It's not that..."
A tone trying to dodge something.
Politan's eyes narrowed.
"Speak the truth!!"
"Ugh! It chased after scout-like ones. They weren't threatening, and since they were boy soldiers, it tried to quickly deal with them and return to the front lines, but..."
Someone appeared.
Politan's brow furrowed.
He soon let out a sigh and shook his head.
"...How many were they?"
The loss of military strength was regrettable but unavoidable. What could be done about what was already gone.
Rather than that, grasping the situation and re-formulating tactics accordingly was the priority.
Confirming the enemy's strength came first.
"...It was alone."
"Alone? Someone who can face our enhanced troll, made with threads and stakes, alone..."
He thought there wouldn't be such a person in the North.
But there was.
"Hmm... It's not impossible. I had anticipated the possibility that there might be military strength I hadn't accounted for."
That could be.
It was a troll after all, and in chaotic times, heroes are bound to emerge.
Just one troll.
Regrettable, but it can't be helped.
"Any other information? In what manner was it taken down? Poison? Or did they have other tactics or a unique ability?"
What's already done can't be undone.
Rather than that, further enhancing the trolls based on information about that fellow.
That was the important part.
"Uh... well, it was taken down in a single strike."
"...What?"
A single strike.
The connection with the troll was severed in a single strike.
That was what the follower was saying.
"That's impossible! Even if the progenitor of the North, Callis, came, that would be impossible! Who on earth! Did the Pope come? Or the Saint?!"
The Pope known as Carpe's saint.
Philippe? Yes, if it were him, it would be possible.
It could be understood.
Or Carpe's Sword Saint?
It was a bit hard to accept, but the Saint's genius was already as well-known as could be.
She had been famous from the start, and there were talks that her swordsmanship was near divine, as if bestowed by heaven itself, so if coincidences piled upon coincidences, it could happen.
A one in a thousand. A one in ten thousand probability overlapping to result in that by chance.
"I don't know. It was someone I'd never seen before. Someone emanating gray divine power, and when he appeared, ash fell throughout the area. Immediately after, in a single strike..."
"......"
A newly appeared strong individual.
And gray divine power?
Ash?
Nonsensical words.
"The enhanced troll is the masterpiece created by mobilizing all of Krasion's technological prowess. Even an Imperial Master couldn't cut it down in a single strike. It's the same even for the Empire's Saint. It's impossible."
But if those words were indeed true, the plan would hit a snag.
"No matter how... strong they are, they can't face the enhanced troll unit all at once. And the masterpiece. First is not someone who would lose even if a saint came."
The operation continues.
Besides.
"No matter how strong they are, they don't have multiple bodies. It doesn't matter. Besides. Our foundation isn't just the trolls."
They had already sent trolls to various locations.
A single person wouldn't be able to stop the North's destruction.
They had secured the positions.
They just needed to quickly move all forces and crush the North.
The trolls had already marched toward the castle.
"What happened with Brans and that guy?"
"They're moving according to instructions."
Soon.
"Zerban will fall."
Politan's yellow teeth were revealed in a bright smile.
* * *
An expressionless face as if devoid of emotion.
However, his beauty, elegant as if painted with a brush and perfectly balanced as if carved by a god, remained intact even on the battlefield.
Black hair fluttering in the biting wind of the North.
Eyes that seemed permeated with ash.
Holding a sword, he was like a painting.
Fluttering ash and.
Pure white snowfield.
And forest.
A fallen troll.
Just with that, a presence creating an effect like a masterpiece of the century.
Callius von Zerban.
The rightful heir of the North and Carpe's hero had revealed himself.
"Dad..."
She didn't want to cry.
But her mind was complicated.
Teardrops welling up roll down continuously.
The fear that she might die. The pain of her shattered shoulder and injured body.
Blurred vision and dizzy consciousness.
But soon, along with relief, a warm comfort came, and it felt like she would lose consciousness if she let go of her strength even a little.
"It's alright."
Callius's expression didn't change.
As it was at first.
There was no change in expression.
If she were another child, she might have been disappointed by her father's expressionless face.
But Emily was not like that.
Rather, that expressionless face actually comforted her.
That expression, as if there was nothing to worry about, put her at ease.
Because of that.
Smoothly.
Emily closed her eyes in her father's embrace and fell asleep.
"E-Emily!"
"She merely fainted. Don't make a fuss."
Having quieted Flora, who was shouting, Callius carefully lifted and laid Emily down, lest she be in pain.
Then he took out holy water, sprinkled it on her wounds, and slowly fed it to her by opening her mouth.
Only after confirming the rapidly healing wounds did Callius slowly etch Emily into his eyes.
"You've grown a lot."
They say children grow the moment you take your eyes off them, was that saying true?
Emily, who had grown while maintaining her childhood appearance, had now grown enough to be called a lady.
That appearance was both proud and gratifying, but on the other hand, a bit regrettable.
'It would have been nice if she had grown just a little slower.'
How nice would it have been to peacefully watch a child's growth process in a tranquil life.
However, the world he lived in did not allow this.
To stand still was the same as being eliminated.
Callius stood on the gears of a pendulum clock.
If he stopped, he would be pushed back as is, and eventually fall off.
Into an abyss from which he could never rise again.
He rarely made a somewhat sorrowful expression, but that was only for a moment.
Callius wiped the blood sticking to Emily's cheek with a handkerchief, arranged her hair, and only then looked at Flora standing blankly behind.
"T-that... I, to the Count..."
Callius lightly passed over Flora, who was stammering.
"You've grown a lot, Flora."
"Y-you remember me?"
"I remember. Is Pedro doing well?"
Flora's cheeks flushed.
A face as if she hadn't expected him to remember her. With even her father being mentioned, it was an expression of honor.
'How could I not remember. She's grown into a child with colorful expressions.'
A child who would have become a sword demon threatening Carpe had changed like this.
Callius laughed inwardly and walked toward the fallen troll.
A troll split precisely in half.
Callius's technique.
The sight of the troll split perfectly in half using Jaemyeol was quite a spectacle.
But that wasn't what was important.
"Threads and stakes."
Threads and stakes wrapped around its entire body.
And nothing was caught in his widely spread energy sense. Meaning the one controlling the troll was not nearby.
Callius could understand the reason.
'Politan, huh.'
A named one.
In a bad way.
'It would be better to kill him now.'
Politan was originally not a being that should have appeared now.
Originally, when the world had deepened a bit more, and dragons and demons appeared frequently.
He was the type to wander the periphery of war like a parasite, smuggling away injured dragons and demons to grow his power.
"He's not much of a threat right now, but."
Given time, he would become quite troublesome.
A so-called late-blooming villain, that's exactly what he was.
If left alone, he was the type to scrape together military strength like a squirrel and grow stronger.
If possible, he was someone who should be annihilated quickly.
In the first place, Emily had been hurt.
And since the North had suffered damage.
"I have no intention of letting him die easily."
Because his ability was quite useful.
"You..."
"Lord Callius!"
Rivan and Rini.
Had those two also grown that much.
They were unrecognizable.
"Did you kill it?"
"As expected of Lord Callius!! Amazing!"
"You've all grown a lot."
Smoothly.
Callius looked at the lying Emily once and reached his hand toward the troll.
"It's my fault for only providing one sword."
Callius's eyes turned bitter seeing Lucent, broken and embedded in the troll.
Soon, pure divine power filled the area. Rivan and the others were startled by the immense power that made their breath catch.
Immediately, a sword was created.
「Sealing Sword - Ingrid」
Its level was Zero, and its unique ability was Sealing.
'Sealing.'
A sword of the trait category.
The meaning of sealing is to lock the door so that nothing can come in or out.
The Sealing Sword seemed to mean temporarily sealing the opponent's movements.
A quite usable sword.
It was also the troll Emily had faced directly, so it was a memento as well.
'Being a half-demon sword is a bit concerning, but she's not a child who would be bewitched by that much.'
Callius, who had placed the troll's sword beside the lying Emily, pulled out another sword from his coat and drove it into the ground.
The troll's sword had a sheath, but this one did not.
"You, that sword..."
"It's a sword made by cutting the Empire's spear. It's useless to me. Tell her it's a gift."
The gatekeeper who guarded Lactus's garden.
The old Empire's spear.
A sword made from its corpse.
It was a phantom sword and a sword of gratitude, but Callius had no real need for it.
'I have no interest in his gratitude, and it would only bring annoying matters.'
The imperial prince and the emperor's concubine who framed him. And the absurd condition of taking revenge on the emperor.
Of course, the reward wouldn't be ordinary, but Callius was not at all inclined.
Even so, trying to use it as a sword, its ability as a sword was quite ambiguous.
'A sword that places restrictions on one's own body and the opponent's is completely useless unless you're long accustomed to it.'
For example.
Against someone you've clashed swords with once, if you restrict both your own and their vision, you simultaneously become unable to see ahead. It could be considered quite usable, but to gain an advantage with this sword required long training, and in battles against transcendents, it was ultimately a unique ability with little meaning.
Of course, at lower realms, it could be used easily enough.
'It'll help with Emily's training too, so it's better for you to have it than me.'
Even with that ability, it's a phantom sword, so it won't break like this time.
"Count. Um, you might not know, but the current Northern situation..."
"I know. And it doesn't matter."
Callius brought out the Iron Monarch.
Soon, the ground beneath his feet turned black.
From a pool black as pitch, a giant dragon's head suddenly emerged.
"Gasp!"
"W-what!!"
Leaving behind those falling over in surprise.
Callius, who had climbed onto the head of the Iron Dragon - Beati, spoke.
"I leave Emily in your care."
Whoosh-!
With the fluttering of the dragon's wings as the last, Callius's figure disappeared far into the sky.
In the hearts of the children watching him blankly, each of their own dawns blossomed.