Chapter 335
Chapter 335
The busiest time for the western gatekeepers of Kelvast Fortress is usually early in the morning and early in the evening. Since most of the area beyond the cursed prairie was the domain of monsters, the vast majority of those they deal with are adventurers, and they usually go out early in the morning to camp or return in the early evening before the sun completely sets.
Since the main customers are adventurers dealing with monsters, it may not be a popular place to work because you cannot expect side income by receiving ‘tolls’ from merchants according to custom like other gatekeepers, but due to the fixed risk allowance and relatively small workload The evaluation is better than the general perception.
You could call it a resort of sorts. A resort where you can relax your body and mind while watching the meadow leisurely after suffering through tolls for several days at other gateways. Even if the Orcs appeared, the gatekeepers weren’t fighting right away, so it wasn’t a particularly big drawback.
The gatekeeper, Hansdek, like the others, tended to work with that level of awareness. It was like that until the moment when he had a leisurely lunch after dealing with the adventurers going out to the meadow in the early morning.
Until a monster-riding orc appeared from the distant horizon holding a huge two-handed ax in one hand.
The reason why Hansdek and his fellow gatekeepers were able to remain calm after blowing the emergency flute reflexively and almost ringing the warning bell was that the orc in their sight was somehow different from usual.
The first reason was that he was moving alone, and the second reason was that he was walking very slowly rather than running to the gate.
Hansdek, who had properly grasped this point even while Mongolia was in a state of resentment, took out an expensive telescope that he couldn’t even take out unless it was an emergency, and looked at the orc, and was surprised again.
“Sah, are you a person?”
The Witchbeast was the Witchbeast of the Orcs he knew. I couldn’t help not knowing because there had been times when I was following a scouting party and was unlucky to meet them and almost get bitten. But it was clearly a human sitting on it. Hansdek, who identified a human as big as an orc and wearing a fur cloak that savages would wear, was relieved, but could not easily decide how to accept the fact that a human had returned riding a beast like an orc.
Of course, the stranger did not wait for Hansdek to decide what to do. I thought it was surely approaching slowly, but when I came to my senses, the human riding the Witchbeast had arrived right in front of the gate.
“ah.”
I haven’t decided yet. Aside from Hansdek’s inner lamentation, he and his companion performed the duties of a gatekeeper with mechanical movements.
“Me, stop! Stop that demon right now!”
To be honest, I have no idea if this is the right response. Until now, no human had ever approached the city riding a witch beast. It was fortunate that the other party stopped at the request.
But after seeing it up close, it was even more threatening. Dealing with adventurers wasn’t even a day or two, but for some reason, the man felt a sense of intimidation. Is it because you’re riding a demon? While glaring nervously at what action the opponent would take under such a sense of intimidation, the man who looked around for a while got off his grip and asked,
“Excuse me. Is this the Kelvast Wall?”
It was a very silly question. There is no other city in the meadow that has built such a barrier, and since he himself left Kelbast, he must be returning from the steppe. Why did he ask such a question? At that moment, an ominous thought passed through Hansdek’s head.
‘Fuck, isn’t that ghost story about the demon of the grasslands real?’
It was a very bloody rumor, unlike the joke about a newborn demon that has recently emerged after pushing out the green demon of the grassland.
Rumor is simple. ‘The Orcs are running away in fear.’ That’s it. However, for the people of Kelbast, who had been plagued by orcs all their lives, that simple rumor came even more terrifying. If you live face to face, you will know even if you don’t like it. How absurd it was that grown-up orcs got scared and ran away.
Even more, they were now Orcs who had grown to an unprecedented size due to the kakula. Hansdek couldn’t even imagine what a terrible monster would have to come out for those guys to escape.
“Yes, yes. This is Kelvast, the Fortress City of Mankind’s Fortress. Please present your ID.”
I was about to go forward with an introduction that I hadn’t expected to be held at the West Gate, but a man with a light of relief on his tired face held out his hand and stopped Hansdek. While Hansdek tilted his head at the action, which had a strong nuance of asking him to wait for a while, not a refusal, the man swung the ax he was holding like lightning and struck the beast’s neck with one stroke.
The man who took out a piece of cloth and wiped the ax while staring blankly at the massive body of the dead Witchbeast collapsed to the floor making a heavy sound, unable to react, let alone resist, to the blow that was so swift and clean.
“Excuse me. I’m not trained.”
How did you get to ride something that wasn’t trained?
It was largely due to the skill he had just shown that he was able to shove the question that almost popped out reflexively down his throat. Besides, if you think about it and think about it hard, you don’t seem to be a bad person. If it had gone closer, Hansdek would have had to work while covered in blood until he returned, and after work, he would have had to go into importing equipment while bathing in double baths.
Hansdek, who received the ID card the man handed him while shaking his head to accept the situation positively, couldn’t help but tilt his head once again. It was clear that there was something unusual about the constant questioning from the moment he found the man, but since there was no other way, Hansdek asked cautiously.
“Isn’t this… the adventurer’s hand of the kingdom of Ethiel?”
The gatekeeper’s memory is important. If you are simply dealing with adventurers and commoners, it is because you have to immediately recognize and deal with major characters such as nobles and merchants. However, there is no army that asks you to clearly remember only the necessary things wherever you go. Among the notorious absurdities of the Kelvast gatekeepers was ‘memorizing the adventurer cards of all countries’.
And Hansdeck could be assured. He has lived for 40 years and has lived half of his life as a gatekeeper, but he has never seen so many adventurer paddles that he memorized when he was a recruit.
It was natural. The only adventurers who could come and go between countries at will were those who revoked their nationality and switched to a common card, and those who went around with nationality carried a special permit, not an adventurer card.
‘But that record was broken today.’
Thinking that this might be the first time in Kelvast, I stared at it with a frown, and the man who had been in serious trouble with his brow furrowed slowly opened his mouth to explain.
“It’s a little long to explain it…”
As the man said, the explanation was a bit long, but it wasn’t complicated because he spoke so well. Thanks to this, Hansdek was able to run to the barracks with all his might, leaving his comrades behind, and had to be slapped in the back of the head by the captain of the guard for enthusiastically explaining what he had heard.
“Hey, stuffy bastard! Do you think that makes sense?! The human who fell in the middle of Kakula’s village wasn’t enough to walk out on his own, so kill him and bring an ax?!”
It was unfair. He arbitrarily assumed that it wasn’t real, and if it was real, he would have made a fuss about cutting off his head. Still, it was better to have a tingling sensation on the back of the head and a dirty feeling rather than a pay cut and dismissal, so Hansdek worked hard to persuade the head of the guard.
I don’t know if it was because of his zeal, or if he also thought it was a fake, and if it was real, his position was in jeopardy.
Fortunately, the process didn’t take too long. There was no knight in Kelvast who did not know the story behind Kakula’s axe, and even more who did not know what it looked like.
Although there was no time to tell the knight the detailed story of the man who visited with an axe, Hansdek didn’t care because that wasn’t the important thing right away anyway. Returning to the gateway with the knight, Hansdek overheard the conversation between the two and was greatly surprised to learn that the ax was really Kakula’s two-handed axe.
“Adventurer, I don’t know how I got this, but this ax is a keepsake of the great hero of Kelvast, Sir Maximan Dubert.
“I’m sorry, but this is the trophy I rightfully acquired by holding Kakula. I will refuse.”
“…Didn’t I tell you. The legitimate right…”
“So…”
“…No…”
But at the end of the conversation that went on and on without a chance to calm down the surprise.
“Hey, you fucking lawless bastard! That’s not legal!”
Without even time to calm down, things took a strange turn in an instant. I have another suspicion. Did I hear right now? fuck? young?
Fortunately, Hansdek’s ears were intact. The expression of the knight, who had been holding his chin high in a calm attitude, was distorted in an instant.
“What, what?!”
“Why do you guys still have the right to things that were robbed and stolen by orcs like idiots? Do western laws work alone in the world? Am I very easygoing?”
Wow fuck that goes so hard
Hansdek quietly backed away, forgetting that his eyes were open to the point of popping out. The knight didn’t seem to believe the man’s words or skills, but Hansdek had no doubts about the man’s ability, who had slashed the beast’s log-like neck in one blow in front of his eyes. It seemed like there would be a knife attack any moment, but it was clear that if I stayed close for nothing, I wouldn’t be able to break even a bone.
Above all, for Hansdek, who has lived under the common sense that being confident in one’s skills and bearing the power and pretense of a country are two separate stories, the man’s tough attitude was so terrible that his limbs were drained of blood, so he instinctively felt distance. There was also something I wanted to leave.
“How dare you, an adventurer, a brat!”
Of course, the knight was more than Hansdek. The knight, whose face was red with anger, quickly reached for the sword at his waist. Oh my God, I’m really going to be the main character of tonight’s drinking party. I was already thrilled to think that the attention of my colleagues and the people around me would be focused when I made a fortune telling that a knight and an adventurer had a sword fight and a huge fight ensued.
“You crazy helmet girl.”
However, the bloody battle that Hansdek expected did not continue.
– Kwajik!
The ax, which must have been much heavier than the sword, swung at a speed that the eye could not keep up with, splitting the knight vertically along with the armor.
“…uh?”
What Hansdek felt as he watched the lightning-like movement was the absurd feeling that a person was being split like firewood. It didn’t feel that realistic. Hansdek trembled in fear in the face of the scene, which he couldn’t believe even if he saw it right in front of him.
“I’m sorry to trouble you, but this time could you bring someone who knows the law?”
Hansdek, who turned around to run once again at his polite attitude, which made it hard to believe that he was the one who had just cut a knight in half with a double-swear word, looked at the back of his comrade who was running far away and lamented inwardly.
‘Fuck. If this has happened, please bring someone high up.’
is not it? If a high person comes and splits in half and dies, is it dangerous because I also contributed to it?
It wasn’t until about twenty or so later that the colleague who seemed like an enemy came back with the lord while he was in the same place and had many conflicts with a creepy man who calmly polished an ax even after killing a knight.