Chapter 131
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
Chapter 131: The Almond Country (1)
***
This is a dream.
Damien looked at the sunset that was painting the sky and was convinced.
The dulled senses, the unpleasant feeling of buoyancy, etc. Various evidences told him that this was a dream.
“You’re late.”
He turned his gaze at the familiar voice. A man was standing under the red sky.
A neatly tailored black suit. Hair slicked back with pomade. Even the fancy cane he was holding in his hand.
It was as if he was looking at a nobleman who had just left a social gathering.
“I took care of the Order of the Cherry Blossom.”
The man took a step to the side. Then, the bodies of the knights came into view.
The knights were dead, their bodies torn to pieces. Their arms and legs were scattered far away, and their torsos were burst open, spilling their entrails.
“It was easier than I thought. I can’t believe it’s one of the empire’s representative knight orders.”
The man raised his cane and pointed somewhere. There, a woman was dead with weapons stuck all over her body.
“The female knight commander was also useless. I was wary of her because she was a Master Class, but she was far behind my Death Knights.”
There was a strong sense of pride in the man’s voice.
“Why did he entrust such a simple task to you…? Why did he ignore me when I stepped forward?”
Gathdal looked back at Damien. His pale skin and sunken eyes made him look not like a human, but like a venomous snake staring at him.
“I don’t know at all. Why does he trust you more than me? Why does he favor you more than me?”
The man struck the ground with his cane. Black smoke covered the floor, and from within it, skeletons armed with armor and weapons crawled out.
“If I crush you here, he will know too. That I am far superior to you.”
Gathdal struck the ground once more with his cane.
The skeletal army charged at Damien, their blue eyes glowing.
***
Just before that, Damien opened his eyes. At first, he didn’t realize that he had woken up from a dream.
He blinked his eyes repeatedly and recognized the scenery around him one by one.
The first thing he saw was the inside of a spacious carriage with a roof. The carriage was rattling as it moved.
Inside the carriage, many people, including Damien, were huddled together. They all had weapons.
‘That’s right. I was on my way to the Almond Country.’
Only then did Damien remember where he was going.
Damien had made various excuses to his family and headed for the Almond Country.
‘I decided to take a carriage because it would take a long time to get to the Almond Country.’
The Almond Country was located next to the Macadamia Kingdom.
Originally, the Almond Duke’s family was a family that belonged to the Macadamia Kingdom.
Then, after producing a Master, they received many rights from the Macadamia Kingdom and became independent as a country.
Since the distance between the Apple Kingdom and the Macadamia Kingdom was very far, it was more convenient to get on a merchant’s carriage than to ride a horse.
All the people riding in this carriage were people going from the Apple Kingdom to the Almond Country.
“Ughhhhh…”
Damien yawned.
Even though he had a strange dream, he felt refreshed because he had slept well.
If he had come on horseback, he wouldn’t have been able to come this comfortably.
‘Why did Gathdal appear in my dream?’
The dream that Damien had just had was actually something that happened in the past.
Gathdal was always jealous of Damien, who was favored by Dorugo and picked fights with him.
The incident with the Order of the Cherry Blossom was the result of that explosion.
Gathdal first volunteered to deal with the Order of the Cherry Blossom, but Dorugo entrusted the task to Damien.
It was Gathdal, who harbored a grudge for this, to surpass Damien, he wiped out the Order of the Cherry Blossom and attacked Damien.
‘He was just a bastard who didn’t know how to read the situation, but… he was a dangerous guy.’
A Grand Mage or Grand Dark Mage was considered to be on the same level as a Master Class.
However, that only meant that they were equal in the sense that they had surpassed humans. In terms of combat power, the Master Class was much stronger.
However, not all Grand Magicians were weaker than Master Class.
Among them, there were those who gained combat power equal to or even greater than that of a Master Class through repeated research.
Gathdal was one of them.
At the time of the War of Destruction, Gathdal’s military power was so overwhelming that even a Master Class would have had a hard time fighting him.
That was because he had completely destroyed the Order of the Cherry Blossom, one of the empire’s representative knight orders, head-on.
‘He’s a guy who’s better off dead. I have to kill him this time.’
Of course, he was still growing, so he wouldn’t have had such power yet.
However, it was as clear as day that he would eventually gain such power.
It would be better to get rid of anyone who could be beneficial to Dorugo in advance.
That’s why Damien was determined to kill Gathdal this time.
While Damien was making his determination,
“Did you sleep well?”
The man sitting next to him smiled and said. His missing teeth made him look a little dangerous.
“Yes, I slept very well.”
Damien replied vaguely, as he was a stranger.
“You look very good when you sleep. By the way, are you also going to explore the ruins of the Almond Country?”
Even in his previous life, people had flocked to the Almond Country at this time. This was because the ruins had been discovered.
The existing ruins had already been fully explored and opened to the public, so there was nothing left to gain.
However, the ruins of the Almond Country were different. It was recently discovered, so there were still many artifacts left.
“Yes, I heard that you can make a fortune if you go to the ruins.”
The middle-aged man’s eyes lit up at Damien’s words.
“You know exactly what it is. The ruins are a place where even the toys used by the ancients are sold for a high price.”
The middle-aged man explained enthusiastically.
“If you find even an ancient book or artifact, it’s not a dream to become rich. If you happen to find a relic sword… your life will really change.”
Damien listened to the middle-aged man’s words with one ear and let them go.
Damien’s purpose was not to explore the ruins to obtain artifacts.
It was only to find Gathdal.
In his previous life, Gathdal had greatly strengthened his army in the Almond Country.
He killed and absorbed the mercenaries and explorers who came to explore the ruins, and finally killed the soldiers and knights of the Almond Country and made them into an army.
‘Gathdal must be hiding inside the ruins.’
The only place where Gathdal could safely and easily grow his strength was inside the ruins.
“By the way, what’s your name, young man?”
At the middle-aged man’s question, Damien hesitated for a moment.
He couldn’t use the name Damien in the Almond Country.
If he revealed his identity for no reason, it would be highly likely that he would arouse Gathdal’s vigilance and make it difficult to track him down.
And there was still a possibility that if he used his real name when a big incident happened while tracking Gathdal, it would be a headache.
He had the proof of an honorary paladin, but that was only a last resort.
“My name is Victor.”
“Victor… It’s a common name, but it’s a good one.”
“What’s your name, sir?”
“My name is Thibaut.”
While the two were talking, the man sitting across from them slammed his fist on the floor of the carriage.
“Hey, you two. You guys were not the only ones who paid the fare here? Can’t you be quiet?”
At the man’s words, Thibaut quickly shut his mouth. He was clearly frightened.
“And what? Find a relic sword and change your life? You’re talking nonsense. How dangerous are the ruins? Do you think a skinny guy like you can explore it?”
The man sneered at Thibaut as he spoke.
‘Well, he’s right.’
Damien inwardly agreed with the man.
The ruins were by no means a safe place. It was a place full of traps and battle golems.
It was a place that no one could enter without considerable force.
“Why don’t you just go back quietly instead of increasing the number of bodies that need to be cleaned up?”
“Y-you’re done now, right!”
Thibaut shouted angrily. At that, the two men next to the man raised their hands to their weapons.
At their murderous gaze, Thibaut had no choice but to lower his head quietly.
“What a coward.”
The man laughed at Thibaut’s behavior.
“And the guy next to you. You said your name was Victor?”
The next target of the man’s ridicule was Damien.
“From what I can see, you’re no different. If you don’t want to be left behind at a young age, you’d better not even go near the ruins.”
The two men laughed at the man’s words.
Damien did not react to the man’s words. Instead, he thought about something else.
He could put up with other people being insulted, but he couldn’t put up with himself being insulted.
While he was looking around the terrain inside the carriage and thinking about how to deal the people who insulted him at the same time.
The carriage that had been moving stopped abruptly.
“Everyone, please get off. We will be camping here.”
The coachman said to the people sitting in the back.
***
The people in the carriage rushed out. The man and the two men did the same.
Because of that, Damien missed his chance to punish him. Damien got out of the carriage, hoping for a later opportunity.
Looking around, he saw people getting off other carriages as well.
“As I said before, we’re just giving you a ride. You’ll have to figure out your own meals.”
The coachman left those words and headed towards the merchants.
The people who were riding in the carriage gathered in small group and discussed.
“We’ll be together for the next few days, how about we take turns preparing meals?”
Everyone nodded at Thibaut’s suggestion.
‘This is getting annoying.’
It was not a very pleasant suggestion for Damien.
Damien had already prepared various foods in his spatial ring in preparation for the long journey.
So there was no need for him to go through the trouble of having a meal schedule.
“What do you mean by ‘Meal duties’? Do you think we’re going to do that kind of crap?”
At that moment, the three men who had picked a fight with Damien spoke in angry voices.
“T, then are you three going to eat separately?”
When Thibaut asked courageously, the man grinned and pulled out the machete he was carrying on his back.
The surface of the machete shimmered ominously. As the man swung the machete, the ground split open.
“How do you think we’re going to solve our meals? There’s a simple way.”
The man said, looking around. The other travelers, including Thibaut, looked away.
“If you don’t want to end up like this, you’d better bring it yourself. Got it?”
The man put the machete back on his back. And he was about to leave with his friends.
Tok tok.
A very refreshing but strangely irritating sound caught the three men.
The man looked in the direction of the sound. Damien was tapping his palm with a wooden club.
The man frowned at the sight.
“Can’t you stop that? It’s so noisy…….”
“I was almost annoyed, but this is good.”
Damien said with a bright smile.
“I’ll rehabilitate you guys into honest and cooperative people.”
***
[Translator – Kie] [Proofreader – Kawaii]
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