He was detestable and brazen. Of course, Renu disliked Zich no matter what, and his impression of Zich grew worse as he interacted with him more and more.
“…Are all humans like you?”
“No way. There aren’t many guys like me who are smart, gentle, handsome, and have a sense of humor- and it’s true for not only among humans, but all species.”
Zich felt Lyla’s glare from behind, but he ignored it. There was no time for them to debate about conflicting views.
“Well, fine,” Renu responded. As if he was growing tired from arguing with Zich, his voice had traces of despondency mixed in. “I don’t care how your mind works anymore.” It seemed like he would lose a hundred years of his life span if he continued listening to Zich.
“Anyways, I am going to take the fact that you attacked me as you saying that you don’t want to escape out of here alive. And no thanks. I refuse to hear another word from you.” Before Zich could even open his mouth, Renu stopped him. “You have nowhere to run. You will all die here.”
Renu pointed his finger at Zich and his companions. A troop of soldiers exuding bloodlust began approaching them.
“…As someone who’s been insulting that bastard until now, I shouldn’t say this, but do you have any way of escaping this place?” Romanne asked. She had been surprised at Zich’s sudden flying kick at Renu; but because of that kick, their situation had turned for the worst and their escape became more difficult.
Lyla responded to her question, “Don’t worry, miss. Although he seems to be thoughtless, he moves after thinking about most things.”
“Huh? I do?” Yet Zich himself seemed to question Lyla’s words.
After Lyla received Romanne’s disappointed gaze, she kicked Zich in the shin.
“Well, it’s not like I came here thoughtlessly.” Zich knocked on the wall behind him. “I wanted to see what was beyond this.”
“You mean that…?” Renu intervened like he couldn’t believe it. “That doesn’t open without a special key. No, before that, there’s a high possibility that you won’t be able to find something good there. Could you have gotten this information from the conversation that the shaman and I shared? I thought you had some capabilities even if you are an annoying guy, but you’re doing an incomprehensible and meaningless act at the last moment.”
“What? I thought you weren’t going to listen to me anymore. How can a king go back on their word as soon as they spit it out? Even a chicken head would have the memory to do better. Ah, was that too offensive? You know, to the chicken.”
Romanne added, “The Iron Tribe is almost pitiful now. How can they bow their heads and serve a guy like that as their king? How is it for the rest of you? If you join our side, we will accept you as refugees.”
The two really let out insults without a moment of rest. Renu’s face became completely red again, but Zich didn’t make his final blow this time.
“Did you say that I did a meaningless act? That’s not the case at all. I remember the information I gained from the conversation you had very well.” Zich raised his sword. Like it had judged the situation as necessary, Windur listened to him quite well these days and assumed the appearance of a sword that Zich imagined.
“There’s some information that you don’t know.”
Crinkle!
Like it was revealing its original form proudly, Windur blossomed its branch-like blades splendidly. Renu, his soldiers, and even Romanne stared at Zich’s sword as he stabbed Windur into a crack in the wall. Renu and the soldiers didn’t think that there was much meaning behind his actions until—
Clack!
They heard the sound of something interlocking.
“What! What is that!”
There was no way elves who had good hearing could have heard it. It almost sounded like a perfectly fitting key was unlocking a lock, and they weren’t wrong.
Rumble!
Zich swung Windur, and as it did in Violuwin, a part of the wall drew a big circle and began to move. Everyone could tell that Zich was opening the wall.
“No!” Renu screamed.
Renu didn’t know how this human had such a key, but he didn’t have the luxury to ponder about it.
“You bastard! Don’t you remember our conversation! If you open that, we don’t know what’ll happen!”
“No, I know!” Zich yelled confidently. “It taught me.”
“T-Taught you?”
“Yeah, so that’s why I know for sure that we’ll be fine if we open this, but…” Zich laughed loudly, “You guys would be completely fucked!”
“Blooooooock him!” Renu shrieked.
Soldiers moving slowly in a line to minimize any harm rushed towards Zich with all they had, but they were too late.
“Isn’t this what you wanted so much! Keep both eyes open and watch carefully!”
Clack!
They heard another ringing noise and Windur turned around in a full circle. The wall’s door, which had quietly slept for centuries, opened. And what existed beyond it was calamity itself.
Craaaaaash!
A huge smoke burst out of the door. It swallowed the basement instantly, flowed down the staircase, and extended out to the whole castle. But it didn’t stop there. It burned everything it touched and expanded its reach. In an extremely short amount of time, the castle changed into a gigantic furnace that blasted out fire.
* * *
While Zich was dealing with Renu in the basement, Hans was leading a battle with the armored soldiers that Snoc controlled and the golems that Lyla made. Even though he was working very hard, there was a limit to fighting against elite soldiers with sloppily made golems. One by one, the armored soldiers collapsed to the ground. Naturally, their secret was revealed.
“It’s not a human. The pieces of armor are empty!”
“It’s a golem! A golem! Just a puppet!”
“It’s not a group of human bandits?”
At first, only a few found out, but the news spread very quickly. The number of armored figures breaking exponentially increased, and there were more elves who found out the news for themselves.
‘Is this almost the end?’
While slicing another elf that attacked him, Hans predicted the end of this battle. However, he didn’t feel regretful.
‘I’ve already long passed the time that Sir Zich requested of me.’
Hans fully trusted Zich; these days, it almost reached the point of fanaticism. Hans didn’t even think for a second that Zich would fail.
‘A lot of armor was crushed. I should start preparing to withdraw.’
Hans planned to retrieve as much armor as possible. He tapped the ground a few times; it was a signal to Snoc.
Thud! Thud!
Some of the attacks from the armored soldiers suddenly became rough. Until now, they had been carefully moving while showing an appropriate amount of aggression; but now, they had contradictory movements. The armored soldiers rushed towards the elves without paying any regard to the damage they received. While they blocked the elves from the front, the golems in the back that were there to fill the numbers ran towards Hans.
Hans took out a magic box. Then he began putting the golems back in the order they arrived.
“W-what…!” Kandis opened his mouth wide at the sight in front of him.
He finally realized what type of enemies they were facing and how his enemies were able to suddenly appear and disappear.
‘There weren’t a great number of enemies. From the very beginning, there were only a few enemies!’
Kandis had been completely tricked by the golems that were camouflaged as armored soldiers.
‘There are some that are especially strong, but that’s all there is to it!’
The especially strong unit directly fought with them and gave the wrong impression to Kandis that the golems with simple movements might have the same skills and strength as the enemies in front.
‘And the especially strong units weren’t even humans!’
Crash!
One elf hit the helmet of the armor that kept attacking them. The helmet lifelessly dropped from the armor, and there was nothing inside. There wasn’t a head, and beneath it was only an empty and dark space.
Thud!
However, the armored soldiers began rushing towards the elf again as if there was an invisible person inside.
“…There are probably very few real enemies. Perhaps…’
Kandis gaze moved towards the middle of the battle. His eyes landed on Hans who was stuffing golems into his magic box.
‘There might be just one person.’
Even though Hans wasn’t performing his job with ease or comfort, to Kandis, it looked as if he was.
Clang!
Kandis raised his bow and arrow. He instilled a large amount of mana into his arrow.
Swoosh!
The arrow flew towards Hans. It was an arrow strong enough to easily pierce through a metal plate. Unless Hans was wearing armor made out of a precious metal like mithril, his arrow would easily pass through.
Slam!
However, Kandis’ arrow was not able to pierce through his insufferable enemy. His enemy had raised his sword and deflected the arrow. The most annoying thing was that while this happened, Hans continued putting the golems into the magic box—as if he didn’t even need to use his full strength to block an attack like this.
“Ahhhhhh!” Kandis kept shooting more arrows at Hans, but Hans slashed every arrow with Estellade. Moreover, Hans barely had to use his strength and easily cut them down. He had his feet stuck in the same place, and the top of his body didn’t move at all; only his right arm moved to deal with the arrows.
“This fuuuckkking piece of shit!”
Crunch!
Kandis threw his own bow on the ground. It was a strong and complex arrow made out of multiple trees, monster parts, and even a bit of metal, but it broke under the shock of Kandis’ throw.
“Focus all the arrows on that bastard who is stuffing the armor in that box! Turn him into a hedgehog!”
If quality didn’t work, he was going to use quantity. The arrows that were shooting towards the armor were now all focused on one person. Since it was dark, it was difficult to see the arrows, but if this was in daylight, the cloud of numerous arrows rising up all at once would have been a wondrous sight. As splendid it was, the rain of arrows would have been just as dangerous.
Wiing!
Hans focused his mana into Estellade; the sword flashed its holy light. Estellade looked like a sun soaring from the ground. Perhaps the sky became crazy and time changed into day; that was how bright the light was. Then Hans wielded the shining Estellade towards the rain of arrows.
Wiiiiiing!
The lights that came out first brightened up the surroundings, and what followed after was an explosive light filled with Hans’ mana. No sound came out from it. The entire surrounding area became bright as if light exploded in the whole area.
Then it disappeared. In an instant, the world was covered in darkness again. However, all the arrows that flew towards Hans disappeared with the light. The elves stared at Hans with shock and froze in place. Since Hans had acted like a somewhat normal human bandit, this was the elves’ first time witnessing his power. Without paying any attention to the elves’ reaction, Hans carried on with his task, but even he felt awkward at the sudden standstill and silence.
‘Um, so, if it was Sir Zich, he would…’
With perfect timing, he met eyes with the general leading the elves. Kandis also had his eyes wide open and was staring at him. Hans could feel the general’s fury.
So he said, “Why are you looking at me like that? What are you getting so angry about?”