Chapter 29: Something I’ve Longed To See

[In total, the number of dead and missing people only amounts to 302. This

is unprecedentedly low, probably the lowest number in Karendil Kingdom's

history.]

After killing that mysterious huge thing, the monster reinforcements

stopped coming, and before noon, the flood attacking the royal capital of

Alfen completely ceased.

Apparently that huge thing was what produced and commanded the

monsters to attack Alfen.

Anyway, I'm currently with the King and Sondark, attending the meeting

where the big shots of Karendil Kingdom gathered, which included the

head knight of the Royal Knights. Marl was standing by my side.

[However, monsters are still actively attacking other places in the kingdom.

Telesco, Glaudis, Berlion, and Crossroad are still suffering as we speak.]

[What is the status of the army?]

[Yes, we are currently in the process of reorganizing our forces as rescue

units by focusing on the highly mobile light cavalry totaling at 2500 strong.

They should be ready for deployment in about a quarter of an hour.]

[We'll also ask for help from adventurers and local militia. But circulating

this announcement will take some time.]

The fact that other cities were still being attacked by monsters, could only

mean that those huge things weren't the real cause of the flooding.

I don't know if there was someone or something commanding those huge

things, but from what I understood, those huge things appeared at the same

time around the world when the great flooding started.

The agenda for this meeting was how to distribute the army strength and to

which cities.

The cities mentioned earlier were all fortified with great walls, so based on

previous flooding data, they should be able to hold their ground for at least

a week or two, a month at the very most.

However, it takes time to mobilize the army.

Moreover, continuous fighting and moving will only lead to exhaustion.

Therefore, we must consider when, where, and how many soldiers we must

mobilize.

At the moment, Crossroad and Teresco were the two cities we could afford

to ignore for now.

Glaudis and Berlion on the other hand were unfortunately attacked by

higher leveled monsters, which certainly would not bode well for them.

Crossroad was roughly located to the capital's southwest, Telesco was to the

east, while Glaudis and Berlion were northwest and west, respectively.

Glaudis and Berlion, along with the dwarven kingdom on their northwest,

were in disadvantage mostly because the monsters attacking them were

stronger than those appearing on Mount Bass.

[It's obvious that we should consider Glaudis and Berlion as our top

priority. Losing them will not only affect the trade with Mount Bass, but

would also open a path for the monsters from the mountain to attack the

capital.]

[The problem here is how we distribute our forces. A mistake will decimate

us.]

[Moreover…]

Everyone's eyes were focused on me.

Please don't look at me like that, you'll embarrass me.

More like the story is flowing toward the direction of me marching out to

help immediately instead of me returning back to our mansion. I got it, I got

it, okay?

You guys just couldn't take a break, could you?

[Where will we dispatch Hero-dono, isn't it?]

To them, my presence is already like a strategic weapon.

In the first place, I alone was able to achieve a much better result than a

knight and an entire corps of soldier could achieve, so it's only natural if

they thought like that.

From this battle, the king, perhaps the entire Karendil Kingdom now

realized what I exactly capable of.

With this, safe to assume that my peaceful life has been compromised from

now on.

[I don't mind going alone.]

Honestly, I think it'll be more effective that way.

It's easier for me to just run to the scene and kick some monsters' ass by

myself. I'm after all, much faster than a horse.

And having to worry about someone else will prevent me from going all out

as well.

However, Karendil Kingdom simply can't have that.

If they don't dispatch a sizable number of soldiers for reinforcement, the

effort will go unnoticed by the local government.

No matter how free I am to move around the kingdom, I'm still but an

outsider nonetheless.

[How about sending 500 light cavalry to accompany Hero-dono toward

Berlion, and sending the remaining 2000 to Glaudis?]

Everyone in the meeting seemed to see that as a reasonable decision.

There were no objections.

[Uwoo, awesome! Look at that, Marl. A dragon! A real dragon!]

It's a few days after we left the capital Alfen.

When Berlion, located on the west of the capital finally entered my sight, I

unconsciously became excited upon seeing a dragon flying by in the

distance.

Dragons had always been a mainstay in a fantasy setting after all. Whether

as an important figure, or a ruling figure.

How could I not get excited after seeing one for the first time? Yes, it's

totally justified.

[Ta, Taichi-san is very composed, isn't he?]

[What kind of hero would be scared by a mere fire breathing flying lizard?]

With that said, I got off the horse and did a light stretching.

As I did so, the cavalry leader came up to me still on his horse.

[He, Hero-dono, what are you going to do?]

[For now, I plan to knock that dragon down, then proceed to crush the

monsters. I'll leave the stragglers to you, also, please contact the local

defence force so that they won't accidentally fire at me.]

I drew my bonded sword out, and checked my status. Un, MP is full. No

problem.

[Marl, you must not overdo yourself. Retreat if it gets too dangerous. I don't

want you to die in this kind of place.]

[Understood, but Taichi should also be careful, alright?]

[Hahaha, easy win, easy win.]

I laughed as I took about ten steps away from Marl before started running.

At first, I was running normally. But as I increased the amount of magic

power I infused to my feet, my speed gradually increased as well. At my

top speed, I kicked up so many dirt and earth behind me as if each of my

steps caused an explosion.

[Wind Shield!]

I also deployed wind barrier to reduce the air resistance. After sprinting for

a while, the horde of monsters sieging Berlion entered my view.

Apparently the wall of Berlion was still holding out well.

But the dragon attacking from the air gave another level of difficulty to the

defending forces. Being airborne while protected by strong barrier made it

all the more difficult to fight off the dragon.

Activating maximum explosion, I launched it at the group of monsters far

ahead.

Land, and flash.

Debris and monsters' guts were flung everywhere due to the shockwave.

Thankfully I still had my wind barrier active to deflect whatever stuff that

ended up flying at me.

The dragon noticed my presence from that.

It stopped attacking the rampart and glided towards me.

You have guts, I like it.

I brandished the bonded sword and began circulating magic unto the ring on

my left middle finger while switching hands. Then I jumped towards the

incoming dragon.

The dragon opened its maw.

I could see something glowing at the back of its throat, before fire started

gushing out.

[Oorraaaa!]

On the other hand, I infused a huge amount of magic to my sword, and

swung.

As the sword was swung, the magic power contained within turned into a

shockwave that blew away the fire breath.

Even so, the dragon still came at me with maw wide open, intending to

devour me.

So I moved my left hand forward.

[Nothing but a fool, aren't you!]

A burst of magic bullets were fired out of my hand, right into the dragon's

open mouth, and exploded around its throat.

The dragon's head separating from its neck told me that the fight was over.

Fuhahaha, you didn't think that far, did you?

[I won! Mission completed! Eh gyaaa!?]

The dragon died, but that didn't mean that its huge body lost its previous

momentum and stopped moving.

I was rammed in midair by the flying dragon's corpse.

[Well , that was close. I thought I was gonna die there]

I got up while spitting out the dirt that got into my mouth.

Perhaps the ground was soft because it was originally farmland, or because

I plowed into the ground so hard that I would've not survived if not for my

four digits VIT, but there was a human shaped indentation on the ground

now.

Checking my HP, the decrease was not as much as I expected. Perhaps my

VIT most reduced the damage so much that the damage became negligible?

I lightly dusted off the little dirt that stuck on my body and checked.

What is this? Many parts of my Mithril plate armor had either broken or

bent down.

But it's not like I can't buy another one though.

Walking toward the dragon's corpse and its head that had partially buried

itself into the ground a bit away from me, I stored it inside my inventory.

Now I'll be able to craft some weapons with dragonic material. I could feel

my heart become hot in anticipation.

[Geez! Did you have to make me so worried like that!?]

[I'm really sorry if I did.]

Now that I'm done rampaging around and slaying monsters left and right, I

was being chided at by Marl as I sat right at the front of Berlion gate.

She said her heart skipped a few beats when she saw me plunging into the

ground after the dragon's corpse rammed me.

Un, I suppose if our positions were reversed, I'd have fainted myself.

Then when I stood back up as if nothing happened to me, apparently all that

worries turned into annoyance. Sorry..

[Please don't do such a stupid stunt anymore, alright?]

[I'll definitely reflect on myself about it.]

[Don't-you-dare-die, got it?]

[Yes! Ma'am!]

Would you please stop shaking the glowy potion bottle while smiling

ominously like that? It really scares me.

Now that I gave it a better look, that mysterious object X in a bottle had

Punishment written on its label.

She seemed to be satisfied with my answer, so I got up and looked around.

Now the cavalry from the capital and Berlion's defense forces were in the

middle of cleaning up the remaining monsters.

And the soldiers standing guard on the ramparts got to see me being scolded

just now.

What are you looking at?!

[That huge hand thing didn't appear in this place.]

[It didn't. Perhaps there is a certain condition to make it appear.]

In gaming terms, the casualties on human side probably has to be pushed to

minimum, or perhaps after a certain amount of monsters have been

vanquished.

U n, if it's a game, then that kind of thing is to be expected, right?

There's too little information to verify that for now. U n, the next goal will

be to solve this mystery.

I wonder if it's okay to investigate such a weird case though.

The monster subjugation continued on until sunset, so Marl and I decided to

spend the night at Berlion.

The accommodation would be provided by the city lord of Berlion.

According to the city lord, the countermeasures against the great flooding

that they've installed around the ramparts and the one and only ballista they

had were burnt down by the dragon, which put them into a predicament.

The dragon seemed to have arrived prior to the flooding from the direction

of Mount Bass.

And a certain someone came and killed the dragon just like that.

I'll gladly hear it out if there is any complain.

After this we'll have a one day rest, then marched toward Glaudis next.

From today's report, it seemed that they're still hanging on over there.

Berlion seems to be closer to the capital, since the other reinforcement

apparently hadn't reached Glaudis yet.

U n, I wonder if they'll be alright. I'll persuade Marl to take the lead of the

soldiers tomorrow.

[By the way, this means I'm going alone tomorrow, right?]

[No, you aren't.]

Such an immediate answer.

[Didn't Taichi-san's armor get broken just earlier today? Are you going to

fight with your armor in that condition? Today I've seen enough battle

already. Hasn't Taichi done so much already since the beginning of this

flooding?]

[Sorry.]

I apologized because even I'm aware of it as well.

But I just can't help it. My level just keeps going up during this great

flooding, which means my status also improved a lot in general.

It's to the point where I felt a little overwhelmed by it.

[Tomorrow will be a day off, and we need to find a new armor for Taichisan. No more objection, got it?]

[Okay.]

I just can't resist Marl.

She's just being worried about me which is why she said all that, so I guess

I shouldn't aggravate her even more.

And I had to admit that I've been reckless recently. It's true that I'm getting

a lot stronger, but overconfidence can be dangerous.

[I'm glad that the armor was still repairable.]

[Umu, Berlion is pretty close to Mount Bass, so there are a lot of dwarven

craftsmen here.]

The first thing I did in the morning was commission a craftsman to repair

my mithril armor. After that me and Marl simply strolled around the city.

Both of us wore ordinary outfits so that nobody would recognize us. I

bought the clothes from a secondhand store in Crossroad by the way.

The only weapons we had on us were just my hunter knife and Marl's

mithril short sword. The passersby didn't even realize that we were the

Hero and his companion.

Anyways, although the royal capital had made a grand announcement about

us, people surprisingly aren't familiar with our faces yet.

[What will Taichi-san do next after the great flooding is over?]

[Nn , first of all, let's visit Marl's homeland. After that, we can start to

investigate the flood, probably challenging the unexplored land as well.]

[Ah, that sounds fun!]

[We can also treat it as a gourmet trip too.]

Strolling around the city while making an occasional stops on the street

stalls that caught our interest, I reminded myself to buy a souvenir for Jack,

Flam, and Mabel who had to wait at the mansion.

I felt refreshed to be able to go on a normal date like this for once.

Day off? Of course I'm going to enjoy it.

=====

[Even though he's a soft spoken man, his power is truly overwhelming]

[Good grief, thankfully he's our ally. Otherwise, I'm terrified imagining if

that kind of power is poised toward our country instead.]

[We can't tie him up, can we?]

[Doesn't matter. We are already very lucky despite not being able to covet

that power for our own country. We must not provoke him. If we somehow

did, then I'm afraid our country will disappear from the map overnight.]

[Yes, Milord]