Chapter 66 – Duels
After the princess and the party escaped, the hideout of the Deadman gang was thoroughly destroyed.
With the people who used it.
“Ummm…”
A man was lying in the middle of a scene of brutal destruction.
It was the white-haired woman, Rudy.
As the sunlight hit her eyes, she raised herself up with her moans.
After rubbing her eyes for a while, she turned her head and looked around.
Dried tree trunks and large, wide boulders that used to hide shelter from the surroundings are shattered and scattered.
If you observe closely, you will notice that the brutally broken human body and bloodstains are left among the wreckage.
Rudy tilted her head.
“I can’t remember anything since I took the medicine… Am I like this?”
Of course, no one was left to answer her words.
If the limbs of the people scattered around her were put together, wouldn’t it be ten people?
Judging by the bandana and clothing, it must have been the corpse of a member of the Deadman gang.
She let out a sigh as she narrowed her eyes.
“Your bandages are stained with blood. It’s embarrassing.”
Rudy, who had become teary-eyed, brushed away the bloody bandages from place to place.
Then, a sound like a bird chirping came from within her arms.
It was a contact.
Click.
“Received.”
[Rudy.]
Her harsh voice rang out as Rudy pulled out a square metal walkie-talkie from her bosom and activated it.
It was a call from the boss.
Rudy and her colleagues call him father.
[I told you to contact me on time. What you have now is something you can only use twice a day.
How dare you blow a precious opportunity like this. What were you doing?]
“Uh… I don’t remember.”
[What?]
Rudy, stinging, picked her words out with her hesitation as her father uttered a puzzled look.
“I took one more pill because I was interrupted by strange guys on a mission.
Then…”
[You stupid bastard! Did you forget what I told you to keep in mind?
If you don’t take it for at least 24 hours…]
Sure enough, her father’s excited voice interrupted Rudy.
Startled, she nearly dropped her walkie-talkie.
[Do you know how much money has gone into raising you!
What are you going to do if your body is broken?
This is how she repays the kindness of feeding, sleeping, and training her for years. You ungrateful!]
“Except for the nosebleed, I’m fine.
I’ll listen to you now, so don’t be angry.”
[…The body is fine?]
Suddenly, the father’s voice softened.
His voice was so intense that just a moment ago, the image of him in a fit of rage and bloodshed was automatically played in my mind.
He seemed relieved that her body was fine.
Rudy said with relief.
“It’s nice. And I missed the gang boss, but I think I killed most of the rest of the members.”
[Hmm… Got it. By the way, you said you were disturbed by some strange guys.
That’s different from the information you received. I will have to charge extra
What kind of guys were they?]
“Uh… I was a body strengthening wizard, a woman who created barriers between men and women.
And the girl who used body augmentation was cute with her puppy dog ears on her head.”
[If you couldn’t overwhelm them, they must be quite good. Don’t investigate
Continue your mission.]
“Yes. When I take medicine from now on, I will definitely follow the dosage.”
[That’s what I mean…]
My father lengthened his horsetail.
[It’s done now. Use your medicines as you see fit.
There is no need to obsess over quantity.]
“?”
Rudy tilted his head.
What do you mean?
It was my father who always warned me about the dangers of drugs until my mouth dries up.
He was a man who neither enjoyed a joke nor changed his words so easily.
She asked, puzzled by her question.
“Can I?”
[Then. Aren’t I okay More than anything, I heard that your body is fine?
It seems that I have been too sensitive about side effects until now. Don’t leave it up to you in the future.
So that no one can disturb you
Instead, make sure to complete this mission.]
“I will. Even if it’s annoying, I won’t skip school.”
When Rudy answered, the walkie-talkie popped.
It seemed that the father had terminated the communication.
It was a bit disappointing to hang up without a word, but my father was a busy man, so it was unavoidable.
Putting her walkie-talkie into her arms, she rose from her seat and brushed the bloody grit off her buttocks.
Shiver.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, lukewarm liquid tickled Rudy’s face.
Looking at it, a trickle of blood was pouring from her eye.
The blood that drenched her palms was ominously black.
“Even nosebleeds…Why all of a sudden?”
It wasn’t just the eyes.
Black blood was leaking from her nose and ears and dripping.
Feeling her moment of dizziness, she lowered her head, taking care not to spill her blood on her clothes.
The ideal that came suddenly stopped abruptly.
It took about a minute for the blood to stop completely.
Rudy blinked her eyes a few times as she watched the drops of blood soaking into her sand.
“It’ll be fine. Father said it’s fine.”
She muttered to herself, wiping her bloody lips.
Then she takes a nicely folded map out of her pocket.
It was an enchanted magic tool that tracked the wooden chests looted by the Deadman gang.
“As expected, it’s moving. I designated it as a marker to distinguish the informant, so I have no choice but to carry it desperately.
First of all, let’s go after this guy and ask where the gang boss went. Yeah, that would be nice.”
Rudy nodded her head.
Judging by the speed at which the markers move on the map, the subject appears to be riding a horse.
I had to hurry to catch up because I was asleep until broad daylight because of the medicine.
Rudy picked up a wide wooden plank that had been scattered around.
“[Remember]”
Rudy hit the plank with her foot and it floated up and stopped around her chest.
When she jumped up and sat down on her legs, her plank was still in the air.
It was intended to be used as a vehicle.
The air itself could have been hardened and burned, but that would waste more than twice as much mana.
It is also much more stable if there is an object to be a medium.
If it was this tree, I could lie down and go.
“[Go ahead] [Tree]”
At her command, the suspended wooden planks begin to move like an enchanted carpet.
Although the speed itself is slower than a horse, it guarantees a constant speed without riding the terrain, so it was a better means of transportation than a horse in general.
You should be able to catch up with them in three days at the most.
As the wind brushed the nape of her neck, her gray hair fluttered down her shoulders and down to her lower part.
‘Come to think of it…’
Speaking of her neck, it reminds me of the rough hand that gripped her neck last night.
At that time, she was almost completely subdued, both magically and physically.
It wouldn’t have been strange at all if it had just ended at the hands of that man.
In fact, she too had prepared for her death at that moment.
But that didn’t happen.
The man, who was about to strike her with his right hand at any moment, stopped moving abruptly when he saw her hooded face.
Thanks to her, her life was saved, so it’s fortunate for her…
She swears she had never met the man.
Although he had a handsome face.
Why was the man upset when he saw the face of the woman he had never met?
“Um… If we meet again, let’s ask before we kill.”
Rudy murmured.
Intuition seemed to her that she would be reunited with the man.
She muttered to herself as she swayed her legs on the wooden plank she was sitting on.
@
“Where the hell are you going? I still don’t know who you are or what your purpose is.”
Beneath a gloomy gorge.
‘Dancing with the wolves’ said, sitting around the bonfire with the princess.
They were on watch.
Although the space distortion tent was convenient, it was because it could not defend against external attacks.
The night spent in the wilderness is long and boring.
It was impossible to fight a duel during the night shift, so there was no way to pass the time without talking.
“To the south.”
“You’ve come far enough south already. How far are you going?”
“To the place called the land of the dead.”
The princess answered succinctly.
It was a joke, but his eyes looked very serious.
‘Dances with wolves’ sneered, and he pulled out several maps from his pocket.
“What is this?”
“I looked for a map of this place at an old bookstore in Daejeon. As you can see, we looked at the changes every ten years.
From the map from two hundred years ago, when desertification first occurred here.”
“So?”
“The phenomenon of desertification, which occurred slowly but continuously, seems disorderly at first glance, but in fact has been proceeding under certain rules.”
“You’re a geographer. What’s that?”
As she spoke in a cheeky tone, the princess raised her eyebrows.
‘Dancing with wolves’ raised both hands to mean that he would not open his mouth any more.
It’s frustrating, but the winner of the duel is the princess.
She had to respect his wishes.
“Of course I didn’t find it, I read about it in some paper before.
Anyway, according to that theory, the phenomenon of desertification that spread to the entire south of Daejeon started from a single point.
That point is the place where the ancient beast that was first subdued two hundred years ago fell.
I looked at these maps and roughly pinpointed the place.
I heard that it is a place feared by the natives, calling it the Land of the Dead.”
“Can I tell you something?”
When asked about ‘dancing with wolves’, the princess shrugged.
It seems to mean positively.
She said.
“I know what you’re saying. In fact, that’s also true.
But that’s a fact everyone here knows.
It is a fact that the government is trying to hide, the emperor is trying to hide.
And if the emperor is trying to hide a fact, it’s no different from a fact that doesn’t exist in the empire.”
“As expected, the natives knew it secretly. It’s the land they live on.”
“Did you know? We’ve protested against the government dozens of times over the past two hundred years.
But nobody listened to us.
Slaying an ancient beast should be an honor.
The government cannot be held responsible for all of this for failing to dispose of the miasma leaking from the body of the beast in time.”
“The government is having a hard time covering up this and that.”
The princess still spoke with a smirk.
She answered ‘Dances with Wolves’ as if it was frustrating.
“Don’t you know what I mean? Whatever you find in the land, whatever you accomplish.
No one in the Empire will recognize it.
From the government’s point of view, the land does not exist.
Everything you’re doing right now will be for nothing.”
“Really? It doesn’t matter though.”
“What… What?”
The princess did not answer.
Without saying a word, he threw a kindling stick into the campfire.
The burning branches crackled and sparks flew.
The moment the teary-eyed ‘dancing with wolves’ opened its mouth to say anything, the sound of the tent door opening was heard.
“Master, you’ve done a good job. It’s time for your shift.”
“I’m sleepy. I didn’t have to stay up all night in the unit.”
It seems that it is already time for shift.
Jiah Kang and Eunseo Shin came out of the tent rubbing their sleepy eyes.
The princess greeted the girls sitting near the bonfire and stood up.
He had not been able to close his eyes for two days.
You will want to go to bed as soon as possible.
“Why don’t you wake up?”
“?”
‘Dancing with Wolves’ made a strange expression.
Because the princess stretched out her hand to her.
“Do you want to go into the tent with me?”
“Okay.”
“Am I a prisoner?”
“Do prisoners of war never sleep or eat? Wake up quickly.”
The princess yawns and waves her hand up and down as if to catch it quickly.
‘Dances with Wolves’ had no choice but to hold his hand and stand up.
“What about Micah? You tied it up next to the horses.”
“Leave him alone. He’s not human.”
“…”
Her princess pulled her to her tent and smiled at her mischievously lowering her eyebrows.
“Rather than that, we should duel, duel. Right?
There is still work to be done.”
“…Yes. A duel. It should be.”
“Dancing with wolves,” He muttered blankly.
When I heard the word duel, for some reason, my lower abdomen ached.
She had a small question, and before she had time to answer the question, she was led by the princess’s hand and disappeared into the tent.
