Chapter 844 - Wishing for Mutual Destruction
'Thinking back on it now.'
Esther had never been afraid of Astrail.
Not even once.
'They were annoying.'
They were like fruit flies that kept sticking to you in the middle of summer.
They would dodge when you tried to catch them, but if you left them alone, they were the kind of abnormal fruit flies that felt like they would lay eggs somewhere on your body.
Therefore, now that Astrail was gone, she felt a slight sense of relief, but nothing more than that.
It would be fair to say that, in common terms, it left no lasting impression.
That is why Esther was composed and made her task clear.
"I need to go visit a few places."
"Where?" Enkrid asked.
There was nothing to ruminate on in the words the dead demon had passed on.
He was an opponent he would have to fight whenever they met.
That was all.
So he was just reacting to what Esther had said while he was lost in thought, reviewing what he had learned while fighting today.
"To their hideouts."
She had investigated Astrail on her own in the past, so even if she didn't know their main base, she knew how to find their hidden assets.
'Most of it will be useless.'
But among them, there would be things that would be dangerous if left alone.
The group called Astrail was, in a word, mad.
And not in a good way.
'A colony-level monster might burst out from somewhere.'
It would also be a problem if an unsuspecting person discovered their hideout.
'If I think about it a little extremely.'
An incident on the level of the phantom beast Salamander might recur.
What if she deals with it and burns it all down before that?
Their assets and research no longer held much meaning for her.
This was, in a way, the result of Enkrid's way of thinking.
'If you leave it, it becomes a poison.'
Then it wouldn't be a bad idea to take preemptive measures.
A potential threat sufficient to take someone's home or life—their legacy should be treated as such.
That's what Esther thought.
"Sincerity and concern…" the Dragonkin began to say, but then raised his sword.
K-RACKLE.
The sound was a step too late.
Before that, a flash of light collided with the Dragonkin's sword, Baek-a, and discharged crackling lightning in all directions.
Themares's lemon-colored hair stood on end in reaction to the lightning, then settled back down.
"I told you to stop speaking my inner thoughts," Esther said.
She was a witch.
No matter how different she was from before, her actions were on a different level from an ordinary person's.
To shoot lightning with a spell just because she didn't like something was a case in point.
And in that respect, the Dragonkin was the same.
They were the same in that they were masters of a different way of thinking.
"I remember."
He did not show any particular reaction to the spell, which contained no malice.
That woman had really just done it as a warning.
He was also in the process of distinguishing what he should and shouldn't do as he was gradually adapting socially.
Esther collected the necessary items from the bodies of the dead magicians.
They each carried various items.
From the bosom of the short magician in armor, a wide iron plate came out, an item with a permanent levitation magic cast on it.
"This could be good with a little work."
Esther, while helping Aetri make Enkrid's sword, had also opened her eyes to magic enchanting.
A few creative thoughts flashed through her mind.
It would be good to work on it when she had time in the future. It would also be good to get Eitri's help.
"Well then."
Esther held no lingering attachments.
She looks only forward and knows how to distinguish between what she has to do and what she hasn't done.
More than anything, if she returned like this, those guys would tease her relentlessly.
'It's better to take some time.'
A cold judgment.
Esther regretted throwing the joke out of a sense of apology and gratitude.
It might have been something that would have passed without issue if Shinar had said it.
'But it would be funny for me to say I feel dizzy here.'
Shinar's style of joke and a tactic to get a piggyback ride from Enkrid.
Why was that coming to mind now?
In any case, Esther had learned one more new thing.
Jokes are forbidden in front of them.
"Is it just my imagination, or does it look like you're running away?"
Rem said.
It was a question, but seeing the corners of his lips slowly rise, it was meant to be heard.
"It is not," Esther answered immediately and moved.
Even for a magician, various preparations would be necessary to go on a long journey.
"I will stop by Rockfreed and then go straight there."
As she spoke and turned her body, Jaxen looked at her back with careful eyes and said, "Are you chasing them?"
It might not look like it, but Jaxen is also serious when he teases people.
If he weren't, he wouldn't have been able to get along with Rem all this time.
Of course, if you were to say the two of them played well together, a knife fight would break out immediately.
Enkrid shook his head. "Leave her be. For a bit."
Then he looked not at the dead, but at the ground.
Hadn't Krais said that this land was also being plowed with tan soil to be developed into farmland?
Traces of that remained here and there.
And on top of that, the traces of poison and spells were also vivid.
Krais intends to turn even this land into farmland.
A task to make a better land to live on, a better place to live.
To protect a place like this, he would still have to live today diligently.
The sunlight, leaning to the west, met the clouds and scattered a faint light in all directions.
Even though everything was over, Enkrid felt as if he could smell a faint burnt scent.
Was his developed intuition and sixth sense telling him that it wouldn't end like this?
'Or is it from cutting down the demon's minion, or something about a vampire?'
He doesn't know.
He cannot know the future.
Because he cannot know the tomorrow that has not yet come, he can only do his best in today.
So, today should not just end here either.
"Let's go back. Themares, you probably haven't even warmed up, have you?"
"There was no place for me to step in. And you want to fight more."
"Yeah."
At the answer that did not deny it, Themares nodded his head.
A Dragonkin is very vulnerable to an intelligent being with a shining will.
They are like a plant that relies on the sunlight.
"Let's."
The party returned.
Krais heard the entire situation from his seat.
And he did not rejoice that his anxiety had been resolved.
'Will it be enough?'
They had blocked even the phantom beast called the Salamander, and now they had the military power to block even a group of magicians.
And yet, his anxiety remains.
Just as Enkrid had smelled a burnt scent, Krais felt an unprecedented anxiety.
'The price for refusing the demon's proposal.'
His anxiety was attributed to that.
Well, is there anything more he can do right now?
There is not.
Then he will just do as he has been doing.
"Abnaier."
At Krais's call, the owner of the dark green hair looked up from his desk.
"What is it?"
The office, too large for just two desks, turns into a meeting room when needed.
On the large table in the center, a military map is always spread out.
It is a place where they stand around the table and each state their opinions.
Krais stood in front of that table, lost in thought.
He had called Abnaier and was reviewing his thoughts once more.
Abnaier understood that and waited quietly for his words.
Krais's gaze turned to the map.
'If it's not enough even after preparing for everything.'
He divides the regions on the map.
He looks again at the shining points in each region.
The vulnerability is clear.
"Aspen is probably training knights too, right?"
That's right.
Abnaier didn't know everything that was happening in his home country, but he knew to some extent.
And what he didn't know, he would guess or predict.
"You state the obvious," Abnaier replied.
The duchy must stand on its own.
For that, military power is essential.
Even if they are being pressed by the Border Guard and Naurillia right now, they don't know what will happen in twenty, thirty years.
Also, how long will they remain as allies?
The continent is a land more familiar with chaos than order.
Human selfishness and greed are bound to change the situation at any time.
Abnaier did not easily trust humans.
'A system where we cannot betray each other is necessary.'
But is such a thing possible?
For now, suppressing them with military power was the best option.
If an adult with a thick fist watches over two children and tells them not to fight, the children will not be able to fight.
For all these reasons, it was natural to invest in the future and nurture talent.
His home country would do so.
"Send them here to learn."
At Krais's words, Abnaier, though he had no such suspicion, asked back, "You're not telling them to naturalize, are you?"
"There's no need to hold them by force. What's needed is 'learning' and possessing military power."
Krais knew Enkrid.
He would protect even Aspen, no matter what.
'Even if we can't mass-produce knights.'
He can create the foundation for it.
Enkrid had created such a system.
Even if it wasn't perfect…
'It helps.'
This proposal was purely for Aspen's benefit, but Krais did not think so.
'Aspen will become a barrier that protects the Border Guard's back.'
Abnaier admitted that Krais was also a madman.
Besides his enthusiasm for the salon, this crazy bastard's vessel was also wide and broad.
"Let's do it."
Aspen had been an enemy country not even ten years ago, but a few years ago.
'To take the initiative in raising the military power of such a place?'
Is it because he can't see ten years into the future?
No, it's because he can draw an even bigger picture than that.
He will suppress the immediate threat, and he will deal with what happens in the future then.
Krais would say no, but this madman was no different from Enkrid.
They were similar in that they walked with their lives on a thin tightrope.
And so, the knight aspirants being trained in what was once an enemy country headed for the Border Guard.
Abnaier persuaded his home country, and Aspen, in reality, had no choice.
The madmen of the Border Guard were more than capable of subjugating Aspen if they wished.
Especially since the news of them killing Beelrog and the recent events had reached the Aspen royal family.
'This is an opportunity.'
That's how Abnaier judged it.
Though the thoughts of the knight aspirants who had come to the Border Guard would be different.
***
Krang, for the first time in a very long time, let out an old habit of speech.
He usually didn't use a lofty tone for the sake of dignity, but because of the nagging around him, he had been using a relatively refined language, but not now.
"These bastards? They're really going to come at us like this?"
Marquess Marcus Baisar, who had succeeded the previous marquess, was on the verge of agreeing with the king's words.
Krang continued to speak.
He didn't widen his eyes, nor did he slam the table.
But just from his tone, one could tell he was agitated.
"Why? Did they just go mad? The south has nothing to gain from this either, right?"
The relationship between the great southern nation of Lihin-Stetten and Naurillia was extremely bad.
Incomparably so with Aspen.
Both countries bordered the demon realm, and the south often crossed the line.
That sometimes led to local skirmishes, and they had even fought a war before.
How many had died in between?
Even the late Marquess Baisar had ground his teeth at the mention of the south.
Krang could read the political situation.
Naurillia is enjoying unprecedented prosperity.
It was as if he could hear the words of the southern king.
"Let's die together."
If that wasn't the meaning, what was?
"Or it means they are confident of victory," Marcus spat out the logical conclusion.
The south would not be pushing the front line just because they had gone mad.
'Because they have a chance of winning.'
Krang also knew that made sense.
But he felt as if some twisted malice had intervened.
"Until now, I saw their tricks not as war, but as a way to negotiate a share of the profits."
He had seen the reason for them sending spies and carrying out various plots as such.
'Did they want a war?'
This is mutual destruction.
A fight to the death.
Why on earth would they do this?
Whatever it was, he could not just sit still and take it.
"Move the troops and notify the Council of Ten. This is the front line protected by the Crimson Cloak Knight Order. We will not be pushed back."
Watching the south slowly push the front line, Krang also steeled his heart.
Nothing would change even if he burst with anger here.
'At most, within a month?'
Marcus had a lot of battlefield experience.
Even without various calculations, he saw that a full-scale war would break out in less than a month.
He was not certain.
This war would be initiated by Lihin-Stetten, not Naurillia.
***
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