Chapter 154 – Battle of Yeongji (12)
The place where the coachman should be is empty. There is no one holding the reins to lead the two horses. Even so, the wagon maintained a high speed.
Dangerous.
In terms of the car, it is like a sudden death on the highway with the driver stepping on the pedal.
‘Why did the coachman take over, damn it…’
Okay. Sitting alone in an empty place, it must have been an easy prey for the ghoul. No, but why is there no structure to protect the coachman, and why is it fucking?
In a way, isn’t the coachman the most important role in the wagon?
Feeling once more the savagery of fantasy, I cried out to Karen.
“Karen! The coachman has been dragged!”
“What?! Damn, that’s real.”
Seeing the empty coachman’s cab, Karen frowned. She immediately focused on the ghoul stomping on the window sill. She thrust her sword through the window, but the ghoul ducked her head down.
Karen clicked her tongue as if she didn’t like her.
“You are annoying. You can’t even cut through the window.”
Outside, the skeleton is still shooting a bow. It was better to avoid damaging the wagon as much as possible. It was the same reason that Ariel’s spirit did not attack the ghouls clinging to the wagon.
“Is there anyone other than him who can handle horses?”
Said Karen, piercing her ghoul’s head. The villagers hung their heads and did not answer.
Is there no one?
‘No, even if I knew how to handle it, I wouldn’t want to step out.’
I had just witnessed a ghoul snatching away a coachman. Which one of these guys would want to lead the horse, leaving Karen and me guarded?
If that’s possible, I’m a bastard.
‘I think Karen can drive her horse…’
Judging from her riding a horse, she is good at horsemanship. She’s good at cutting swords, and she even wears full plate armor, so she doesn’t have to worry about being attacked by ghouls.
I turned her gaze to Karen. Her sword decapitated another ghoul.
Strong. Even though she uses a relatively long sword in a narrow carriage, she can decapitate ghouls without hindrance. In this situation, is it okay to waste her fighting power like Karen as a coachman?
-Kihehehe!
“Go away!”
-Kiheheeng…
After kicking the ghoul that was clinging to the door, her thoughts cleared up.
It’s better to leave Karen alone as a combatant.
If so, what should I do?
In fact, the answer was with me.
I opened Ariel’s status window.
===============================
〈 Ariel 〉
Species: High Elf
Gender: Female
Age: unknown
Height: 161
Weight: 53
[Muscle strength 6/11]
[Agility 4/10]
[Stamina 6/12]
[Magic attribute 0/0]
Residual Karma: 150
〈 Title 〉
Doesn’t exist
〈 Skill 〉
-Better elementals
-Slave
===============================
Ariel’s status window after a long time. Her strength and stamina increased by 1 from before.
I made him exercise like that, but his improved physical ability was only that much.
Admiration came out in a different way, but that’s not what’s important right now.
I went to the shop from Ariel’s status window. The types of items that can be purchased are listed. Among them, I clicked the technology item and pressed the magnifying glass button that was added a while ago.
A new search bar appeared and the cursor blinked. Below that, a keyboard pad appeared.
-Kihehehe!!
“I want you to turn it off.”
I held the ghoul in check with one hand and tapped the keyboard pad with the other.
I typed in ‘riding magic’ and clicked on the magnifying glass picture again.
After a short loading time, a number of skills appeared with ‘riding magic’ in their names. There were a lot of search results because horseback riding was common.
I scrolled down and found the right one.
[Imperial cavalrymen’s horsemanship – 150 Karma]
There’s something just right. I bought without hesitation.
“What?! Ughh… Kyaaak!”
Ariel, who had been crouching in the center of the carriage, clutched her head and complained of her pain. Her spirits are restless and she wanders around her.
By the time Ariel’s breathing had stabilized, I grabbed her arm and lifted her up.
“Ugh… What are you doing?”
I ask, frowning, if the unpleasant feeling hasn’t gone away yet. She put her on her driver’s seat and put the reins in her hands.
The question on Ariel’s face deepened.
“You know how to write, right? Drive yourself. You guys protect Ariel.”
I shot at Ariel and her spirits. She held her head up, ignoring what Ariel was about to say. We see two ghouls watching us from the roof of the wagon.
“Keep it right.”
I warned the spirits once more and jumped onto the roof. The ghouls didn’t let me get to the roof safely. As soon as I landed, I swung a sharp claw.
They aimed at the head and legs, respectively. The upper claw flipped the upper body backwards, and the lower one jumped and dodged. All of a sudden, I felt as if I was lying in midair. In that state, I kicked the ghoul that had attacked me in the head.
-Kieek!
He lost his balance and fell unsightly. He rolled over the roof and fell under the wagon.
I kicked the ghoul and spun around in the air with the recoil. When I landed safely, I was at the opposite end of the seat from which I had climbed. Even if the landing was a little late, it would have fallen.
-Kihaak!
One remaining ghoul aimed at my back and charged. As I turned to the side to avoid it, its mouth and claws cut through the air. Just like my friend, I fell off the wagon in vain.
I threw the dagger at the back of his head. The target is currently not in a state that can be blocked or avoided. The dagger pierced the back of the target’s head.
[You have acquired 15 Karma.]
A notification appeared indicating the death of the ghoul. Come to think of it, I accumulated quite a bit of karma in this Territory War. When I go back, I’ll have to buy a new skill or something.
I retrieved the dagger I had just thrown with the Manlyu Demon Sect.
At that moment thump! The carriage shook violently with a loud noise. It was because the ghoul running next to the wagon hit the wheel.
“Kyaaaaagh! Mother!”
“Alice!”
A young girl’s scream followed by the mother’s earnest cry.
When she turned her head, there was a child who had fallen from the wagon and the mother of the child who had run towards the child. Her child’s mother grabbed her child and held her back in her arms.
As if he would protect this child.
.
.
.
“Oh, fuck.”
When I came to my senses, my body had already jumped off the carriage.
* * *
“Whoup!”
As I inhaled, my muscles contracted. Silver light drew a line and pierced the ghoul’s head. The limbs of the ghoul, which had been actively rampaging, drooped without power.
Karen drew her sword from her ghoul’s head. It was stained with the dark red blood of the black ghoul.
‘How many of these are there?’
Were there seven? I don’t know the details. But the point is that she killed her ghoul. And also to protect Young Ji-min.
Now she was no longer a fledgling knight who had never had a real fight, but a full-fledged knight.
Karen liked that fact.
That’s why he wasn’t afraid of the ghouls attacking the wagon.
‘I will kill all the evil monsters that are targeting Yeongjimin.’
It was when she was about to target another ghoul. Cooong! The carriage shook with a muffled sound.
“Kuh…”
For a moment she lost her balance and faltered. It was when she was barely pulling herself together.
“Kyaaaaagh!”
Perhaps because of the shaking earlier, the child was being thrown out of the wagon window. Karen and her mother ran straight for the child.
‘Please reach me!’
She held out her hand in longing.
She couldn’t reach
“No! Alice!!”
The child’s mother jumped at her child. There was no time for Karen to stop. The mother held her child in her arms to protect it. Karen looked at her with her blank eyes and slowly lowered her outstretched hand.
“Oh, fuck.”
An annoyed voice. It was a voice Karen knew. As she lifted her head up, her familiar figure caught her eye.
A man with dark hair in baggy leather armor.
He fell at great speed and wrapped himself around the child and mother.
“Ariel!!”
He shouted loudly. Right after that, he hit the floor from the back and rolled over. The dust rose and hid the figures of the three.
-Huh!
A cute cry heard from somewhere.
Water appeared out of nowhere and stretched out into the dust. Rummaging around as if looking for something. After stopping the rummage to see if he had found it, he pushed the water upward strongly.
Like a fishing rod that catches fish.
The ones caught were Yoosung, the child, and the child’s mother. They fell onto the wagon.
Karen, who had been dazed, came to her senses and stuck her head out of her window.
“Are all three of you okay?!”
“Kuluk…Kuluk…Yes, it’s fine.”
A painful Yooseong’s voice was heard. It looks harmless. Karen let out a sigh of relief.
When the tension was released, what came to me was a sense of shame.
She hardened her face and bowed her head.
Clenched fists trembled.
‘I just couldn’t save the child. No… I didn’t ask for it.’
If she had put her hand out the window, flinging herself out of it.
If she had thrown her body and stretched out her hand for her child, holding only her window frame narrowly.
She may have saved her child with her own hands.
Even if it didn’t save her, she should have. Because that’s the chivalry she learned half her life.
But Karen didn’t.
She knew very well where she was.
Karen von Klener.
One of the great pillars of the Fromm kingdom, a woman who inherited the blood of the Marquis of Klener.
She lived without knowing that she was lacking since her childhood. She could eat whatever she wanted, and she could achieve most of what she wanted.
And on the day she became an adult, all her rights she had enjoyed returned as duties.
She had to defend and shine the honor of her family, and sometimes she had to give up herself for the good of her family.
If only I had risked my life for my ex.
Further if she lost her life because of it.
It turns out that she did not do her own duty.
Not my duty as a knight, but my duty as a nobleman.
Of course, the honor of her who died after fulfilling her chivalry will be preserved. The bards of the realm will sing of her benevolent disposition, and the nobles will praise her for her noble blood.
However, the heads of the villagers riding in the wagons will be cut off. The child who dared to sacrifice a nobleman for his own life would not die easily, and the two knights who failed to protect their little master would be expelled.
In exchange for her neglect of her duty, which rested upon her shoulders.
So, what she had just done could be seen as wise in a way.
But now she
Knight, Karen von Klener.
She was disgusted with herself.
“Damn it…”
What’s a bitch who can’t save a child?
Why does a bitch who is said to follow chivalry make trivial calculations for her child’s life?
Look at that adventurer
He was the man she thought was just a contractor with a little bit of skill. Such a man threw himself without hesitation for the child.
She is different from her
Then, isn’t that man more suitable for a knight than she is?
Haha…”
She said that just before that she had become a real knight, she smiled and she laughed at herself. She was sick and sick of her own hypocrisy and was about to vomit.
Blood dripped from his bitten lower lip.
Just then, Yooseong came back down to the carriage with her child and its mother.
“Karen? What are you doing without catching ghouls…”
“Han Yuseong. Just ask.”
“Yes? Ah yes. Ask.”
“Why did you jump in earlier? It could have cost her life. Did you try to renege on your promise to the lover who left first?”
Yoosung’s face stiffened at the word ‘lover’. He quickly sighed, relaxed his expression, and replied.
“I had no intention of breaking my promise.”
“Then?”
“It was just… My body moved on its own. That’s it.”
He did not even explain that it was because of childhood trauma.
But the answer was enough for her.
“…Is it.”
Hearing her answer, Karen’s hands stopped shaking.
After a moment of silence, she kicked the door of her carriage and jumped out of her carriage.
She cut down the skeleton knights who were approaching the carriage in mid-air. She mounted the skeleton horse and tossed the skeleton to the ground.
I’m going to go to the middle of the day. The Skeleton Horse shook the stranger down and twisted her body. Karen braced her legs and held on with her hands on the skeleton horse’s neck. Her skeleton horse realized she couldn’t shake it off and accepted her as her new master.
Karen turned her head. She sees ghouls running towards the wagon.
Twenty is a number that seems to exceed even at a glance.
She charged at them.
Karen said she didn’t want to be ashamed of herself anymore.
* * *
Kalita’s lord’s throne room.
There, Karen’s father and current head of the Marquess of Cléner, William von Kletter, was sitting in a chair.
“Yeah, I don’t think I have any more reports to post. The meeting doesn’t end here. Let’s go see business.”
The retainers bowed their heads and left the audience room. After they all left, Marquis William also stood up.
The old butler, Vincent, came to his side.
“Where would you like to go?”
“Let’s go to the office. I have a lot of work to do.”
“All right.”
Marquis William moved first, and the old butler followed him. The two of them strolled through a quiet hallway. Confirming that no one was around, Vincent cautiously opened his mouth.
“Marquis. There is something this butler dares to ask the Marquis.”
“Something? Isn’t it between the butler and me? Feel free to ask.”
“Thank you for the grace. The only thing I want to ask is about Miss Karen…”
“Ah, is the butler curious about that too? Why did I exclude Karen from the race to succeed her?”
Marquis William laughed lightly. The butler bowed his head.
“Yes. Lady Karen has her bright head and her straight wick. In addition, she excels in martial arts. As for me, I cannot possibly understand the intentions of her marquis, who excluded her young lady from the race for her succession, and in particular sent her book of marriages to Van Reed.”
Vincent’s question contained not only pure doubt but also reprimand. It was a little rude, but William didn’t feel too bad.
Vincent was a loyalist who devoted his life to the writer after Clénère, and he was also an outcast who considered Karen like his granddaughter.
William answered with a smile.
“As Vincent said, Karen is an outstanding child. In terms of her intelligence, she surpasses my first brother and her second brother in martial arts, and she thinks of Yeong Jimin more deeply than I do.”
“Then…”
Vincent raised his voice in anticipation, but William shook his head.
“However, no. She said that child is not suitable for her family head.”
“…Why?”
“It’s too oppressed.”
“Yes?”
William stopped walking and drew the sword from his waist.
The sword used by the founder of the Marquis Cléner family, and the family’s treasured sword that William inherited on the day he became the head of the family.
“Didn’t I say that the child’s wick was straight? That’s right. The boy is upright It’s a problem because it’s too straight.”
William turned his sword and inspected the blade. A sword that has been passed down for hundreds of years is sharper than most famous swords.
“Your upright mind cannot betray your expectations for me. Have you ever seen him rebel? Not when you say you want to become a knight.”
After thinking for a moment, Vincent shook his head.
“Doesn’t exist.”
“Yes. Karen has never rebelled against me. She has never betrayed the expectations of those around her, nor has she abandoned her duties. She always lives with a heavy duty on her shoulders.”
“That…”
“Yeah, that’s right. Good place An aristocrat who fulfills his responsibilities… How many people are like that in the world these days? I also have a lot of children’s clothes.”
William smiled happily. He soon hardened his face seriously.
“But, as I said, the child is crushed. To the expectations of others, to the obligations imposed by family. His self-will always takes a back seat. That might be fine for an ordinary knight or aristocrat, but… To become a head of household, or to become a monarch, that’s not the case.”
William raised his sword into the air.
“Assuming duties and responsibilities, but sometimes.”
He swung his sword slowly. The sword’s sharp blade cut through the air.
“I have to sprint out and observe my will. As a result, whether it is beneficial or harmful to the family, you have to go ahead.”
“Then why did you marry the young lady to that bastard…”
“This is the last chance I can give you. Please, I want my child to break out of the cage.”
William chuckled and put his sword into the holster.
“Now, is the question resolved?”
“Yes. I deeply apologize for daring to doubt the Marquis’ deep intentions.”
“Well, from the look on his face, he must have liked my answer. So don’t rush now. Like I said, there’s a lot left to do.”
The two men walked back down the aisle.
