novelraw Chapter 25 : Chapter 25
Chapter 25 : Chapter 25
Chapter 25. Alvarez (2)
Alvarez found the scene before him hard to believe.
Frank, whose power had been sealed, was crossing the rugged Elburz Mountains without any trouble.
What's more, he even turned to look at him, who was lagging behind, and said this.
"A knight of the kingdom, tsk."
Alvarez bit his lower lip hard and tried to put strength into his trembling legs.
‘How is this possible? His power was sealed by the Demon King's curse, wasn't it? Was that actually not the case?’
The other name for the Elburz Mountains was the Mountains of Death.
It wasn't just because the demon territory, full of demons, was located beyond them.
One wrong step could lead to a fall into a bottomless cliff, and, ‘It’s incredibly high and treacherous even for a grown man like me to climb. Is this the difference in experience?’
He was once again reminded of the fact that the man named Frank was the former hero who had defeated the Demon King.
That being said, Adel was no pushover either.
It must have been her first time here, just like him, yet she followed Frank's back well without even panting.
‘Damn it. I can't be the only one left behind.’
Alvarez climbed and climbed the mountain as if his life depended on it.
After climbing the mountain all day, he was finally able to reach the Demon's Pass, which separated the demon territory and the Benedict Kingdom.
At an altitude of 1,842m.
The only entrance to the demon territory, the Demon’s Pass, revealed itself.
Was it because he was the only one showing how much he was struggling?
Frank stopped in his tracks, as if he couldn't possibly continue the march in this state.
"It would be best to rest before we go."
Adel also nodded, looking at him with a disappointed face.
"I suppose so. Should we camp here for tonight?"
"We should. Please prepare."
"Yes, Father."
Alvarez wanted to help Adel, but he couldn't lift a single finger due to exhaustion.
Adel, leaving him to his own devices, began to set up the tent by herself.
"I'm sorry."
Alvarez managed to speak, but it was a voice like a mosquito's hum even to his own ears, so no one heard it.
While he was lying on the ground, catching his breath.
Adel finished setting up the tent and began to light a campfire.
Alvarez's plan to take the lead by climbing the mountain in one go had thus burst like a bubble and disappeared.
***
‘His stamina itself isn't bad.’
Mountain climbing? I'm not some man in his 40s or 50s, I don't have such a hobby.
But Frank's abilities were limited to swordsmanship and magic.
His basic physical stamina was so robust that it could be called off the charts.
‘I probably wouldn’t have been tired at all even if I had reached the summit. A hero is a hero, I tell you.’
Well, with this much stamina, he was able to travel all over with his daughters in the game.
Meanwhile, I was in charge of the meals.
This was because we hadn't brought any servants.
Today's dish was a tomato-based vegetable soup.
Even though it only contained vegetables without any meat, the aroma wasn't bad.
Adel asked with a bright face.
"Wow. It smells really good. What is this?"
"I knew you were a good cook, Father, but this is a first."
Of course it was.
Not only did I not have time to cook, but I didn't feel the need to.
‘All the cooking was done by the servants, so there was no need for me to step in. But this place is different.’
Actually, vegetable soup wasn't something I usually made.
I'd rather have kimchi stew than this.
However, PP was a game based on medieval Europe.
Whenever the protagonist went on a training trip with his daughter, he would always make this dish and share it with her.
Besides, the ingredients were nothing special, and the recipe was simple, so there was no better food than this for eating outdoors.
As I was thinking that, Adel, who had taken a sip of the soup, made a fuss.
"Wow! It's really delicious!"
"Is it?"
"Yes! It's among the top two soups I've ever had."
I tilted my head and asked back.
"Who's the first?"
"The soup of our house's head chef, Chico!"
Hmm. It was true that Chico was a good cook, but to think I'd lose to him.
I'm still lacking.
But Adel chuckled and shook her head.
"I'm kidding. This is the most delicious."
Huh? She's joking like this?
Adel burst out laughing by herself as if something was funny and ate the soup deliciously.
Why was that sight so cute and lovely? I was full just watching her eat.
Now it finally felt like a father-daughter relationship.
‘In the game, too, Adel was always a child who smiled like that.’
A fatherly smile formed on my face.
If I had known, I would have cooked for her often instead of struggling to find flowers.
That aside, I didn't know why that bastard Alvarez was eating my food with such a constipated look on his face.
If it didn't taste good, he should just starve. How insolent.
I spoke to Alvarez with a face full of dissatisfaction.
"It seems it doesn't suit your palate, so don't force yourself to eat."
But what was this?
When I reached out to retrieve the food, the fellow pulled his plate back and refused firmly.
This bastard. Is he kidding me right now?
I can't just hit him, he's a real eyesore.
What kind of guy is this?
***
‘Damn it. Trying to take back what he gave. As expected, I can never forgive this guy.’
Alvarez put all his effort into defending the vegetable soup.
In truth, anything would have tasted delicious, but the food Frank made was, no joke, really delicious.
‘Did he take charge of cooking like this every day when he was vanquishing the Demon King?’
The hero's adventure was popular enough to be published as a book, but there were no trivial cooking stories in it.
It was all about what enemy he met today and who he fought the next day.
But how could one fight without eating? Surely someone in the hero's party was in charge of cooking, but he never dreamed it would be the hero himself.
Anyway, this was too delicious.
Alvarez put down his pride and carefully opened his mouth.
"Excuse me……."
"What?"
"I'd like another bowl, please."
Not just Frank.
Even Adel stared at him with a dumbfounded face.
But what could he do? Aside from being hungry, it was too delicious.
Adel had said it was the best soup she had ever had, and he completely agreed.
This honeyed taste was so good that one of two people eating it could die and the other wouldn't notice.
This was not the time to be concerned about his pride.
***
The next day.
The party, who had woken up early at dawn, tidied up their surroundings as soon as they
opened their eyes, filled their stomachs with the vegetable soup they had eaten yesterday, and began their descent.
It seemed that going down would be much easier than going up, but this was the Elburz Mountains, said to be the most rugged on the continent.
Going down the steep path required much more caution than coming up.
However, this was a bit strange.
"Baron, what are these weapons? They look like weapons used by the demon tribe."
An enormous number of weapons were scattered around without their owners.
It seemed one could become filthy rich just by collecting and selling them.
But Frank and Adel, as if they had coordinated, urged him to keep moving, telling him not to worry about it.
‘Strange. It feels like they know something about this but are only not telling me.’
If these were items left behind by demons while crossing the mountains, this was a matter important enough to be reported to the kingdom immediately.
‘Did they leave only their weapons because it was hard to climb all the way here? No. They’re too haphazardly scattered for that.’
It felt as if they had fought a fierce battle and then fled, leaving only their weapons behind.
However, Alvarez had no more time to think about it.
Frank and Adel were already that far ahead.
"L-let's go together!"
Frank had the experience of crossing this place several times, so that was understandable, but why was Adel so nimble? Even a mountain squirrel wasn't this much of a mountain squirrel.
‘Damn it. It seems she’s been training every day lately. Did she come here with Frank without me knowing?’
If not, there was no way to explain how she was climbing the mountain so nonchalantly.
The descent, which was no less difficult than the ascent, ended.
At a time when the sun was still hanging at the edge of the mountain.
The three of them were able to descend to the flat ground safely.
"Gasp. Gasp. I-if we could just rest a little……"
Talk about bad timing.
Before he could finish his sentence, a high-level monster jumped out of the bushes.
A Blood Bear.
The most ferocious of monsters approached, roaring.
"Uwoooooh!!"
As expected of the demon territory.
The class of the monsters encountered from the very beginning was on a completely different level.
Alvarez drew his sword, panting for breath.
"Kuhk. To think we'd meet this guy as soon as we came down."
Could he handle this guy? He was by no means an easy opponent.
Although he had trained like crazy, thanks to Anticus, it was difficult to find a single monster in Rarc Village, and from Alvarez's perspective, today was the first time he had directly encountered a monster.
Moreover, this guy was a high-level monster rarely seen even in other places.
‘Commander Bern said he almost lost his life fighting this guy when he was young. Of all times, now.’
While Alvarez was unable to move, lost in various thoughts.
Adel rushed towards the creature with incredible speed.
"It's dangerous!"
But Alvarez regretted spitting out those words as soon as he did.
Because Adel had split the Blood Bear in half with a single strike.
He thought that kind of thing was just a made-up story from a fairy tale, but Adel had proven it without a doubt.
Adel's profile, looking at the Blood Bear she had defeated with an expressionless face, felt like that of a grim reaper.
Alvarez muttered these words without realizing it.
‘Why did I come here? I shouldn't have followed in the first place.’
It felt like tears would come out if someone just poked him.
***
It was the third day since they crossed the Elburz Mountains and came to the demon territory.
As expected, Adel was Adel.
"Father, it seems there are no more dangerous creatures in this vicinity. Can't we go further inside?"
I quietly shook my head.
"That's too dangerous. Let's end this trip here and start preparing to go back."
"Heeing. It was just starting to get fun. I guess it can't be helped."
I gave a bitter smile and looked in the opposite direction.
Not only low-level demons.
All sorts of monsters were lying on the ground, spilling their guts and blood.
In comics, when they die, their eyes turn into Xs, creating a cute scene, but reality was different.
Was this game actually a type of gore genre? ‘It’s hard to breathe because of the smell of blood. Phew.’
Today, I finally realized that the expression 'a mountain of corpses' was not just a literary expression.
That aside, what should I do with that bastard Alvarez?
"……."
Alvarez wore a half-dazed expression.
While Adel had struggled with fighting demons only at the beginning, he had only taken care of a few low-level monsters.
And that was just hunting low-level monsters like slimes or goblins. For the most part, he just stuck close to me and trembled all over.
‘After getting brushed by poisonous weeds a few times, he’s become a complete coward.’
Of course, I understood.
Adel was a child of God by birth, and hadn't she been reborn as a fighting machine through the five-year skip process?
Now, she was making progress day by day under the guidance of a world-ending boss-level master named Anonymous.
In contrast, Alvarez was an insignificant NPC even in the game.
The demon territory was probably a few hundred years too early for him.
Anyway, they said there was no training like real combat, and that was true.
‘As time passes, she is cutting down demons and monsters without any hesitation. I’m looking forward to how much more she will grow.’
Anceps, which Anonymous had improved, had also done its part sufficiently.
At this rate of growth, it seemed she could defeat the Demon King without much difficulty.
But I soon dismissed that thought.
‘No. There’s a possibility that Nox is not the final boss. I have to stay focused until the end without letting my guard down.’
Everything that has happened so far has been different from the existing knowledge I had.
What on earth were the developers thinking when they planned the five-year skip Process?
There was no way I'd get an answer by thinking about it here.
I shouted loudly, saying we should withdraw.
"If we start climbing too late, we might not be able to reach the Demon's Pass within today. Let's move right now."
"Yes, Father!"
Unlike Adel, who replied briskly.
Alvarez silently packed his belongings with his head bowed low.
To think he could take second place in the kingdom's knight exam like that.
I felt that the kingdom's skills were also quite insignificant.
That must be why they had to borrow the hands of the hero and the Children of God for everything.