novelraw Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Wizard Slayer
Sailo could not keep his legs still.
He paced back and forth restlessly, biting his nails.
His gaze never wavered from the high ground occupied by the Republic.
It had been less than ten minutes since Ered launched his solo operation.
Nevertheless, Ered was already making his presence felt quite clearly.
Thump!
Explosions erupted continuously from beyond the high ground.
One didn't need to be an expert to know that a massive commotion had broken out.
‘Didn't he say he was going to assassinate him?’
Sailo couldn't help but feel doubtful.
To anyone watching, this uproar was far from a quiet assassination.
‘Surely, nothing has gone wrong with him?’
Just as Sailo’s anxiety was peaking, a black silhouette appeared at the edge of the cliff on the high ground.
It leaped down without hesitation—a silhouette jumping across the wide river in a single bound.
“W-Who goes there!?”
The startled Imperial soldiers hurriedly aimed their rifles.
“Lower your weapons! He’s an ally!”
Sailo, recognizing the identity of the silhouette a second later, hurriedly restrained the soldiers.
“I’m back.”
Ered swept back his sweat-soaked hair.
At that sight, Sailo let out a long sigh of relief.
Regardless of the mission's success, the safe return of a precious Prominence was a fortunate enough outcome.
“This is a gift.”
Ered tossed something he was holding.
A spherical object rolled across the ground.
“Hm...?”
Sailo picked it up without much thought.
“Gyah!”
Losing his composure, he screamed and threw the object back onto the ground.
It was a human head with wide-open eyes, its expression frozen in a grotesque mask of death.
After staring at the head with revulsion for a moment, Sailo froze.
“…Wait. No way?”
Sailo looked back and forth between Ered and the unidentified head.
“It’s the guy you’re thinking of.”
“This... this head belongs to that Wizard?”
Sailo was momentarily speechless.
The Republic’s Wizard had always poured down magic bombardments from a distance, hidden from view.
Thus, Sailo had no way of knowing what the man actually looked like.
For an entire month, this Wizard had tormented the Imperial Army.
Ered had brought back the man's head in an instant.
Stealing watermelons would take longer than this.
‘Is this truly the power of a Prominence?’
Furthermore, Ered’s physical condition was perfectly fine.
His camouflage gear was torn here and there, but that was it.
He didn't look like someone who had just single-handedly invaded an enemy base of over 1,000 men and turned it upside down.
‘I worried for nothing.’
He felt embarrassed for having spent the last ten minutes fretting over Ered’s safe return.
“Is it true?”
“That head belongs to the Wizard?”
The soldiers began to murmur.
“That damn bastard is finally dead!”
“Finally!!”
Some vented their resentment, while others expressed pure exhilaration.
This was the Wizard who had sent so many of their comrades to the afterlife.
The soldiers let out cheers, releasing the emotional knots that had built up.
After a round of curses directed at the dead Wizard, the praise shifted toward Ered’s exploit.
“Long live the Prominence!”
“Guardian of the Eastern Front!”
“Wizard Slayer!”
Wizard Slayer, huh.
‘He was a low-level guy for a Wizard, though.’
Ered scratched his head.
It was a grand title.
There were plenty of Wizards in the Republic far superior to that man.
Well, since he did kill a Wizard, the title wasn't technically wrong.
‘This is just the beginning.’
The day would come when he would take the head of an even greater Wizard.
***
“Let’s move.”
Ered urged his subordinate unit members.
Managing subordinates was something he was still not used to.
‘It’s more comfortable moving alone.’
For that reason, he always volunteered for the vanguard instead of sending his soldiers ahead.
It wasn't because he particularly valued his subordinates' lives; he simply found the ordinary soldiers, whose overall abilities were significantly lower, to be frustrating.
Ered leaped onto a hill.
Immediately after striking down an enemy rushing from the left, he swung his blade upward to cut another.
The Republic soldiers fell before his sword like autumn leaves.
They stood no chance.
The morale of the Republic soldiers had already plummeted to the floor.
The death of the Wizard had a massive impact on the Eastern Outskirts Front.
The scales of victory had already tipped.
Currently, there was no being in this area who could stop Ered.
‘Shall I go for it today too?’
He pushed through the Republic’s front line openly from the front.
“R-Red eyes!”
“It’s him!”
The Republic soldiers trembled in terror.
“I’ve become quite famous.”
A smile played on Ered’s lips.
“Fire!”
The Republic soldiers, lined up in a row, fired all at once.
Their target was Ered.
Reading the direction of the muzzles in advance, he accelerated diagonally.
In an instant, he reached the front of the enemy ranks.
Whoosh—
The soldiers caught in the trajectory of his swinging sword fell in heaps.
“Raise shields!”
Someone from beyond the Republic’s line shouted urgently.
The Republic soldiers scrambled to raise their shields.
In the process of their fumbling, four or five more lost their lives to Ered’s sword.
A shield wall large enough to cover their entire upper bodies loomed before Ered’s eyes.
A meaningless response.
No matter how many layers of shields they stacked, they couldn't close every tiny gap.
Ered forced his sword into a crevice.
“Aaargh!”
Screams scattered from behind the shields.
After quickly withdrawing his sword, he plunged it into another gap in rapid succession.
The shield-bearers fell one by one.
The blood of the men pierced by the sword soaked the ground until it formed puddles.
“Crazy...”
The expressions of the Republic soldiers were stained with horror.
The once-solid shield wall loosened in an instant.
Ered pushed against a crack in the wall with his shoulder, forcing it open.
“Hold it!”
Dozens of men tried to block him, but they couldn't push back a single Imperial Prominence.
Instead, they began to be pushed back in reverse.
Clatter.
The soldiers who couldn't hold out collapsed like dominoes.
Ered stepped inside the line, trampling over them.
“Shoot him!”
Ered etched the face of the man shouting urgently into his memory.
‘That guy is the commander.’
Right before the triggers were pulled, he kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.
It happened so suddenly that the Republic soldiers' muzzles failed to catch up to him.
Bang-bang-bang!
Bullets were wasted on thin air.
The spot where Ered landed was right in front of the commander.
“Oh, shit.”
That was the commander’s final line.
The Arcane Sword bent like a whip, lashing out at every enemy within range.
Thud.
Severed body parts soared into the air before falling to the ground one by one.
After dealing with the commander, Ered strode out of the enemy camp.
Enemies still filled the area, but he ignored them and sheathed his Arcane Sword.
A Prominence walking away with his back turned.
“…….”
The Republic soldiers could only stare blankly at the scene.
He looked defenseless, but they didn't dare to attack.
It was overwhelming.
No matter how much they struggled, they wouldn't escape death.
An unshakable fear had been engraved into their minds.
“Wipe them out!!”
“For the Empire!”
The Imperial Army, arriving late, rushed in with guns and swords drawn.
It wasn't that they were slow; it was that Ered was excessively fast.
“U-Ugh... .”
The Republic soldiers retreated with pale complexions.
They had already lost their will to fight due to Ered’s tyranny.
‘I’m getting bored now.’
Ered left the battlefield with weary eyes.
It was a continuation of one-sided slaughter.
It was a time when he needed a new stimulus.
***
Victory after victory.
As the battles repeated, the Empire’s front line expanded.
It was safe to say the war on the Eastern Outskirts Front had already been decided.
‘This must be it.’
A snowflake falling onto Ered’s palm melted away from his body heat.
It was the sixth month of the dispatch.
It was the point where they had captured the majority of the Republic’s key bases and fortresses, including the high ground once held by the Wizard.
‘It will be difficult to push the front line any further. The supply lines will get that much longer.’
Ered was certain of it.
They were already long enough.
If the supply line were cut by any chance, the hardships they had endured so far would likely go down the drain.
There were many other reasons too.
Through the string of victories, the Empire’s front had expanded significantly.
To put it another way, the manpower needed to defend the front had increased.
Currently, it was a struggle just to maintain the line.
Winter had already approached.
It was weather unsuitable for continuing a war.
Since the 2nd Circle Wizard had been eliminated, the Republic had taken no special measures.
The Republic’s national power was somewhat inferior to the Empire’s; they likely had no energy to waste on defending a nutrient-poor wetland.
‘But the Republic can't just keep yielding the front forever either.’
If the Empire pushed in further, the Republic would no longer overlook the intrusion.
So, this was the limit.
“There you are.”
Sailo, finding Ered, smiled warmly.
From Sailo’s perspective, Ered was a lucky charm that had rolled into his lap.
“I heard you’re returning soon.”
“The war will enter a lull before winter is over.”
“Then we must talk as much as we can. This will be the last chance I have to speak informally to you.”
The future of the young and talented Prominence before him was bright.
He was bound to receive high-speed promotions one after another.
“At this rate, you should be able to return before the year is out. It’s all thanks to you. Every time I see my kid, I’m shocked because he’s grown so much taller. The longer I spend on the front, the more precious the time spent with my child feels.”
“You have a child?”
“I have a son. Remarkably, he passed the entrance exam for a prestigious academy. He’s probably around your age.”
A proud smile spread across Sailo’s face as he thought of his child.
Exchanging various bits of small talk with him, Ered returned to the military camp.
“The Wizard Slayer is here!”
The soldiers who spotted him welcomed him fervently.
“It seems your nickname has solidified as Wizard Slayer.”
Sailo laughed genially.
“Even though I’ve performed countless other feats worth mentioning.”
Ered shrugged his shoulders.
It seemed the memory of the day Ered brought back the Wizard’s head remained the most vivid in the soldiers' minds.
***
“The Wizard Slayer has graced us with his presence.”
“I’m realizing once again that rumors travel fast.”
Ered was inwardly surprised.
He had just returned from his dispatch mission.
He didn't expect that word to come out of Head Instructor Verdo’s mouth.
“Redstone is always very interested in the exploits of its cadets.”
Verdo smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You’ve performed quite a significant feat.”
Not only had he eliminated the troublesome Wizard, but he had also led a string of victories and expanded the front line.
Naturally, he had caught the attention of the higher-ups.
“At this rate, wouldn't it be worth aiming for valedictorian over Lensis?”
“Hm. Certainly, your exploits at the dispatch site were more prominent than Lensis's.”
“Is that true?”
Ered’s eyes widened.
He had said it half as a joke, and didn't expect Verdo to react seriously.
“Lensis. What do you think?”
Only then did Ered realize Lensis was nearby.
From his appearance, it seemed he too had just returned from a mission.
“Long time no see, young master.”
“I’m envious. Encountering a Republic Wizard.”
Lensis replied dryly.
It seemed a Wizard had not appeared on the battlefield he had headed to.
‘How would Lensis have handled a Wizard?’
One wouldn't know for sure, but he probably would have shown overwhelming skill.
Lensis’s skill was the best among all existing Redstone cadets.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
The reason Ered’s exploits were superior was simply because Lensis didn't have the opportunity to meet a Wizard.
That was all.
“Graduating as valedictorian is impossible. My overall grades are far superior. If you work yourself to death, aiming for salutatorian might be worth a shot.”
He was a consistently rude bastard.
The fact that he couldn't refute it because it was true was more frustrating than anything.
In the meantime, the other cadets were returning to the academy one by one.
“It looks like everyone is gathered.”
Verdo looked around at the returned cadets.
The reason they were gathered was simple.
To report back after finishing their missions.
‘Hm?’
Ered tilted his head.
The number of cadets in this class, including him, was 15.
Currently, the number present was only 13.
Yet Verdo said everyone was gathered.
‘…So that’s how it is.’
He soon guessed the reason.
They likely failed to show exploits above the benchmark during their dispatch mission.
Or they died.
***
Neustadt, the capital of the Empire, was a metropolis that had bloomed based on magic engineering.
However, shadows are bound to exist even in a brilliant city.
The further one moved from the center of the city, the more the splendor faded, and the streets became noticeably dirtier.
Neustadt is divided into sectors by number.
From Sector 1 to Sector 39.
The criteria is social status.
The leading digit changes according to whether one is nobility, a citizen, or poor.
For reference, Redstone Academy is in Sector 10.
Sectors 1 through 9 are reserved only for the Imperial family and distinguished guests, so they are out of the question.
Ered had just entered Sector 39.
It meant there was no place further back.
Having lived in sunny places, away from the murky mire for a while, he had temporarily forgotten.
That he was born and raised here.
A neglected sector.
The intervals of the alleys connecting the buildings were irregular.
It looked like they had thrown land surveying to the dogs.
Vagrants stained with grime glanced at Ered.
Just a few years ago, Ered was in a position no different from theirs.
Ered’s presence captured people’s attention wherever he went.
He couldn't help but receive attention.
Someone dressed handsomely in a uniform was extremely rare in a sector in the 30s.
If the clothes he wore weren't a military uniform, robbers and pickpockets would have swarmed him long ago.
‘How on earth did I live in a place like this?’
His past self seemed remarkable once again.
If he had to go back, he would rather bite his tongue and die.
Ered vowed to live even more diligently.
‘Visiting once in a while when life gets dull will be a good stimulus.’
Life is still enjoyable.
Nevertheless, the reason he went out of his way to visit this place was because of a promise he made to someone long ago.
Having just finished his dispatch mission, he was in a state of waiting for orders.
He had plenty of leisure time.
It was a smelly hometown he was visiting for the first time in a long while.
“…….”
He sharpened his senses.
His time to savor the atmosphere of his hometown had been disturbed.
It was faint, but clearly felt.
He was unsure at first, but as time passed, it became a certainty.
‘I’m being tailed.’