novelraw Chapter 79 : Chapter 79
Chapter 79 : Chapter 79
Chapter 79
“Finally… I finally got to meet you. The commander of Odin. You have no idea how much I have been looking forward to this moment.”
He placed his two hands neatly on his chest and poured out his pure emotion.
The man’s condition was not very good.
He was in better shape compared to Hobelerus, but he, too, was not well, having been corroded by the poison emitted by the Leviathan.
He seemed to have taken an antidote, but because he was continuously exposed to the poison, I could see his body slowly breaking down.
I was certain that if left alone, his heart would stop within ten minutes.
He himself must have known that he was dying.
And yet, his voice was so filled with joy it seemed it would take flight.
“How happy Her Majesty the Queen will be… It is just a pity that I will not be able to witness the sight of her praise with my own eyes.”
Seeing him speak as if a word of praise from the Queen was more important than his own life or death, I thought this was probably closer to a faith than a nation at this point.
The level of the man, who was slowly drawing his sword, was 3.
If we fought normally, I didn't think I, who had the upper hand in terms of Authority and stats, would lose, but…
Unfortunately, I didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.
All I could do was stare up at the distant sky.
“There is one thing I am curious about, Commander of Odin. Why on earth did you think of betraying Her Majesty the Queen? I simply cannot understand it.”
“……”
In the first place, when I opened my eyes, I was not on Odin’s airship.
I was in the middle of an unknown forest, being led by the hand of the hunter Karsan Kaltz, and Purity’s shelling was falling around me.
Betrayal?
What a joke.
From the moment I opened my eyes, I was a low-ranking soldier of the Alliance.
If the place I had seen when I opened my eyes had been Odin’s airship, by now I would have been fighting against the Alliance on the Purity’s side, alongside the Odin soldiers I had so carefully nurtured.
But what was the point of all that now?
The Queen’s goal was to have Odin’s forces entirely under her command.
Therefore, even if I were to yield, she would not let me live.
“Why did I betray her?”
“Do you have a reason?”
“Of course, I do.”
I forced my muscles to form a smile.
“Because the Queen is a foolish, selfish, and cowardly invader who, despite being a monarch, sends her soldiers to the front while not showing her face on the battlefield herself.”
“……”
The man’s expression twisted viciously.
As I thought.
Perhaps because his loyalty to the Queen had reached its peak, he couldn’t stand this kind of insult.
To provoke the Purity heroes, it was several times more effective to attack the Queen than to attack the commander.
I had gained new information, but it felt like a waste since I probably wouldn’t have a chance to use it.
The man raised his weapon high into the sky, and I closed my eyes.
The coming death was fearsome.
And yet, I held a certain expectation.
A sliver of hope that if I were to be killed like this and opened my eyes again, the nostalgic smell of my cramped, rented room would sting my nose.
The hope that the phone would ring with the melody of my favorite song, and if I pressed the call button, my parents’ nagging would tickle my eardrums.
STAB!
A gruesome sound echoed.
The sound of a sharp blade cutting through skin and muscle and digging in.
“……?”
Strangely, there was no pain.
Ah, is this what happens when they send you off without pain… I thought, but I could still hear my own heartbeat.
The damp feeling of the earth against my back.
The blood tickling my cheek.
And the slight, full-body pain from the poison.
If I were dead, I shouldn't be feeling these sensations, right?
I opened my eyes.
Amazingly, my eyes opened.
And what I saw was the figure of the man, who had raised his sword, slowly collapsing.
An arrow was lodged deep in his chest.
The collapsing man’s sword created a deep wound on my cheek.
I heard the sound of a small engine.
I quickly recognized it as the sound from the Fairy Wings.
Before long.
Bright blond hair filled my vision.
“Rian! You’re alive, right? Rian!”
“…Lirisa.”
“Oh my… Thank you, God.”
Lirisa’s face was filled with tears.
Her face, panting heavily, was a mess of tears.
Not only her voice calling out to God, but also Lirisa’s hand touching my shoulder was trembling violently.
Unable to do it in one go, Lirisa, after several attempts, finally succeeded in opening the lid of the healing potion and poured the contents into my mouth.
She tried to support me, but she seemed to have no strength in her body, as she failed repeatedly.
Finally judging that she couldn’t do it alone, she fired a signal flare and, until the additional rescue team arrived, she held my hand and bawled her eyes out.
No, that was closer to a wail.
I’m alive thanks to you.
I wanted to say thank you, but I didn't even have a chance to speak.
She was crying so sorrowfully that her pronunciation was slurred and I couldn't understand what she was saying, but one thing stuck in my ears.
“Please stay by my side… There’s no one left now…”
* * *
With the help of the rescue team, I was moved to Unit 917’s airship, where I closed my eyes and passed out.
I think the psychological problem was probably greater than the physical fatigue.
When I opened my eyes again.
The sky was stained black, and small stars were densely packed in it.
“Are you feeling a bit better?”
Selina’s voice was heard.
When I looked to the side, I saw Selina holding some unidentifiable medical supplies, and Lirisa, sleeping like the dead in the corner of the room, leaning her head against the wall.
“Drink this.”
Selina handed me the medicine.
She told me to drink it, so I did, but I didn’t know what effect it had.
“How’s the situation?”
“You just came back from the dead, and that’s the first thing you ask?”
“I’m curious.”
“…Sigh.”
With a bitter smile, as if dealing with a disobedient child, Selina explained what had happened while I was unconscious.
Since she had been able to watch everything from the outskirts, unlike me who had been in the midst of the chaos, she had a lot of information I didn’t know.
First, after Roka and Tet collided and a massive mana storm occurred.
Tet had barely managed to maintain its altitude, but Roka had sunk below the sea of clouds.
“Is it dead?”
“Yes. We have confirmed that Roka’s breath has definitely stopped. The ground is in an uproar. A massive tsunami occurred when Roka fell into the sea. I don’t know the extent of the Purity’s damage, but in the Alliance’s case, the mages did their best, but there were many casualties.”
Selina, her expression grim as if she were thinking of the victims, did not hide her regret as she said that not only were there casualties, but a port city had been damaged to the point of being irreparable.
However, the problem was not yet over.
“There are signs of a large-scale war breaking out around Roka.”
“Of course, there would be.”
Roka was a giant, living mass of mana.
The corpse of a fiend that had maintained a whole stage just by emitting its surplus energy.
The quality was one thing, but the quantity was simply enormous.
The Purity and the Alliance, who fought over mana sources, would not have just watched Roka’s corpse sink into the sea.
They would have squeezed out as many troops as possible and sent them to the scene, and a huge clash would probably occur soon.
“By the way, how did you know I was alive?”
“How could I not know? You shot out sword energy so spectacularly.”
“…Ah. Right.”
The Second Claw I had used to finish off Hobelerus and Galakal.
It seemed they had discovered the black sword energy that had shot straight up into the sky.
I heard that even before Selina’s command, Lirisa had shot off, and thanks to that, she had been able to arrive in time.
It seemed that both factions had suffered enormous damage in this battle.
In the Alliance’s case, about 40 percent of the deployed soldiers were killed in action, and 20 percent suffered serious injuries requiring long-term care.
Unit 917 was not completely unscathed either.
Mars from Squad 1 had suffered a sizable wound and was receiving treatment, and in Squad 2’s case, two had been killed in action.
Byan, who had broken his arm, was said to be very disheartened by the fact that he had lost two squad members in his first deployment as a field commander.
Still, the damage the Alliance suffered was relatively light compared to the Purity’s.
The Purity’s casualties were on a similar level, but perhaps because of their proximity to their airbase, unlike the Alliance, they had suffered significant damage to their airships.
Considering the scale of the damage, it seemed that for a while, only the Alliance would be able to conduct operations in the Frey Archipelago.
“Oh, and we also safely recovered Galakal’s eyes and heart.”
“That’s a relief.”
“As you know, Rian, who subjugated Galakal, has the opportunity to choose one mana source. Which one will you choose?”
“The left eye.”
Galakal’s two eyes and heart.
The amount of mana they held was similar, but there was a big difference in their other effects.
They all had decent effects, but I could say with certainty that what I needed most right now was Galakal’s left eye.
Selina did not show any particular doubt about my choice.
She just nodded, as if thinking that since I had chosen it, there must be a reason.
Thanks to Selina, I was able to get a rough idea of how the situation had unfolded while I was unconscious.
At this point, although the losses were huge, it seemed safe to say that it was a victory for the Alliance.
“Can we rest for a while now?”
The kingdom was a cruel place that forcibly conscripted refugees who had lost their country and were wandering, and sent them to the battlefield, but still, after finishing an operation, they provided a not-so-short vacation.
In fact, it was more like the time it took for the injured to recover.
Those who had achieved victory with a sound mind and body were given the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely cultural life in the cities in the rear during that period.
Of course, I had other reasons for wanting a vacation.
First, if I returned to the capital or other major cities, I planned to check out the auction house.
I also had my salary, which I had been steadily saving because I had nowhere to use it.
With that, I would develop my non-attribute…
“No.”
“Huh? What?”
“Unfortunately, there is no time to rest. We have been given 40 hours to recover from our injuries. Any soldier who has not finished recovering within that time will be excluded, and we must immediately enter the next operation.”
“…Why? No, what is the next operation in the first place?”
“I just explained it to you.”
Selina, too, seemed displeased at being dragged into the next fight without proper rest, as she said with a deep frown.
“I said a large-scale battle will take place over Roka’s corpse in the sea below.”
“…Don’t tell me we have to participate in that, too?”
“Yes.”
“……”
Damn it.
For fuck’s sake.