Chapter 115

(115)

“……Valen.”

“Duke Valencius!”

I opened my eyes as I heard a distant shout.

The sky was still completely dark, and it felt like only a few minutes had passed since I fainted.

“What is it that you so desperately call for?”

I slowly lifted my head to check my physical condition and the surrounding situation.

“Be careful. Be cautious.”

Rudi helped me steady my neck.

My limbs were all intact, and my shoes were unharmed.

My left hand was still covered in scales, but it wasn’t a situation to complain about.

The surroundings had turned into a tidy plain, and I could see undead giants scattered, torn apart here and there.

The man who had caused their transformation gazed at me with calm, gray eyes.

Those strong yet weary eyes trembled.

Seberik asked in a voice filled with doubt.

“Duke Valencius. Why did you do that? You could have died.”

I answered with a weak smile.

“Duke Seberik. If you had been struck by a corpse explosion and collapsed, it would have been the end for me as well. Saving you was saving myself.”

Seberik had a moment of disbelief.

“……Did you trust me?”

His words carried an underlying implication that he hadn’t expected to be trusted.

Rudi’s hand trembled slightly, revealing her guarded feelings towards him.

I stood up with assistance and patted Rudi’s shoulder.

It’s okay.

“You should have shown a more untrustworthy side. Are you not the endlessly noble Duke of the North?”

Seeing Seberik’s expression of uncertainty about what to say, I continued.

“You, Duke Seberik, also trusted me, didn’t you? Instead of abandoning you and fleeing, I said I would somehow take care of the giant shaman.”

“That’s……”

The binary choice of trusting or not trusting is always a difficult one.

Especially when facing someone who could not ultimately see the same viewpoint from the deepest places.

But for someone like me, it was painfully true that sometimes, there were situations where you could only choose to trust the other.

“Because you chose to trust me first, I was able to trust you.”

Even knowing that the other had no choice but to trust, there were still people whose emotions were shaken by the fact that they had trusted themselves.

Those who had lived painfully often felt this way.

Among the bizarrely insane people who rushed forward with a mentality of ‘you die, I die,’ someone who offered trust was simply a relief.

Seberik let out an incongruous sigh.

He turned to stand by my side and, along with Rudi, supported me.

They were almost carrying me.

Rudi made a face as if something displeased her.

She smelled faintly of wolf fur.

We began walking down the path that the carriages had taken.

It was a silent and quiet road where we could barely hear our footsteps.

“Duke Valencius.”

“Yes. Duke Seberik.”

“I just thought that it would have been nice if you were born in the North.”

“Me?”

“If all negotiations with the central region were left to you, then I could stay at the front-line fortress.”

“Don’t say such scary things. What if I end up surrendering everything to the central and flee?”

He said with a heavily restrained voice.

“You would have to take hostages among your loved ones or family in the North.”

I snorted and replied.

“Don’t speak so incongruous. What good would a hostage be if it’s clear that you can’t kill them?”

Seberik forced a smile.

I felt I understood what he really wanted to say.

I smiled faintly and continued.

“Yes, Duke Seberik. I don’t understand why we are wasting effort on unnecessary power struggles, attrition wars, and reasoned battles within the same empire. Humanity should be joining forces to declare war against the infiltrators, aliens, and monsters.”

I knew well how important such power struggles, attrition wars, and reasoned battles could be.

Wars without agreed-upon distribution of spoils could either not begin at all or lead to a re-fight after defeating an enemy.

Even knowing that better than anyone else, facing a powerful enemy like today leads to thoughts of what the point of such struggles is.

“What point is there in such struggles, and what reason is there to fight over?”

“When that time comes, the great lords would not need to waste their energy keeping an eye on each other, and I, Crown Prince Valencius, would not need to wander this desolate wilderness.”

Seberik responded with a gentle smile.

It was a smile like falling snowflakes.

Calmly, he said.

“Among my ancestors, there were many who loved the spirits and the people of the North.”

“Our ancestors felt the same.”

Not all lineage management was done with meticulous calculations.

“It was madness to mix blood with enemies that needed to be defeated and killed. Though now every noble has heterogeneous blood, it was not the case back then.”

“That’s correct.”

“But because of that madness, I of later generations possess all sorts of exotic bloodlines.”

He had the body that could endure corpse explosions, and he summoned the spirit known as Kelpi during winter.

“Though it may seem mad at the moment, I think it could be beneficial for future generations.”

I thought so too.

If Sererassie heard this, she would agree.

If we don’t step forward, nothing changes.

Even if we can’t ultimately see from the same viewpoint.

“I believed in you and, thus, you could believe in me. It leads us to friendship.”

His quiet gray eyes pierced through me.

In an instant, I recalled my past life before the return.

He was my regret.

I had desperately wanted to pull him in, but ultimately failed and forced him to take his own life with cowardly tactics.

It was different in this life.

“Are you sure you’re okay? You know my reputation.”

“My reputation is not insignificant either. The northeastern lords who collided with me in the past still believe that the Duke of the North only survives on infant food.”

“Thank you.”

I lifted my head and met his gaze.

We gazed at each other again.

“May I call you brother?”

It was a splendid word for building intimacy.

“Call me by my name. We are friends now.”

Seberik took another step forward.

“Eek!”

Just then, Rudi gasped.

“What’s wrong?”

“……Valen.”

Her voice trembled.

Her unfocused green eyes shook chaotically.

“I think it would be better to walk a bit faster.”

“Why?”

“There are bodies shambling at the dock.”

* * *

The crew members who had just emerged from the marshes of Count Delusiato and the coachmen who had run through the plains all night, where the undead giants appeared, were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

“Faster! Even faster!”

“The knights are getting tired too!”

“Lower the plank ladder and bring the cart!”

But they didn’t consider resting at all.

The entire dock was covered in undead.

“Uuuuuuuuu!”

“Kiiyiiiiiiii!”

The ghostly figure known as ‘Wraith’ and the wailing women ‘Banshee’ flew through the sky, screaming horrifically.

The crew members, hearing the cries, covered their ears in agony.

Some porters lost their balance while pushing carts from ladders and fell into the water.

Bang! Ping! Pling!

Skeleton archers were firing bone bolts at them.

Bow-sized bone shards pierced through clothing with ease and knocked down people.

“Uwoooow!”

Zombies of all sizes rushed in like a tidal wave.

Some began to merge, taking on the shape of abominations.

Only a handful of attendants and a few knights brought by Seberik were holding back that dreadful army.

If it weren’t for a priest of God Amon among them, all the crew would have gone mad and killed each other by now due to the wraiths and banshees.

“Bless those with the pride of warriors……”

Though it wasn’t a full moon, it was a night when the moon was shining, and the sailors, baptized in the light of the moon, overcame the undead’s morale and began transferring food to the ship.

“You’re doing well.”

Lysena shouted at a priest bleeding from his nose as she swung her sword.

The blessed steel sword beheaded the banshee and shattered the wraith.

Though her blade wasn’t wide, it was thick and sharp enough to tear through flesh and bone.

She wielded a two-foot dagger in her left hand and a three-bladed sword in her right, dismantling the undead.

Sick! Swaaack!

As she had to face hundreds or thousands, she couldn’t unleash her mana blades to the fullest.

She twisted the zombie’s knee deeply with her three blades, piercing it.

With a thud, the zombie with a wrecked knee fell to the ground.

“Uwoooow!”

Wham!

At the same time, she thrust her dagger into the eye of the next zombie lunging to bite her, twisting her arm with all her might and smashing its skull.

Lysena charged at the increasingly growing abomination while devouring nearby zombies.

Boom!

The abomination’s vine-like strength struck down.

Lysena pivoted on her right foot to evade and deeply stabbed the back of its knees.

“Bwooo!”

At that moment, the creature weirdly let out a cry and knelt.

She quickly pierced its nape with her three blades and sliced through it.

Peeing! Peeing! Peeing!

“Ugh……!”

Over a hundred skeleton archers focused their fire on Lysena.

Though her armor was a high-grade piece engraved with numerous reinforcement magic circles, it was uncertain whether it could block bolts and arrows imbued with immense morale.

Clang, clang, clang, clang!

At that moment, a white figure stood in front of her.

“Lady Lysena. I’ll take charge here.”

Lady Trentia shouted resolutely, blocking bolts and arrows with her body.

The immense morale could not pierce through the crimson colors flowing through her body.

One hand was held tightly to the crossguard of her greatsword, while the other gripped the round pommel.

“Ha!”

Roaring like a wolf, she began to dash, wielding her flaming red mana blade with sweeping arcs in all directions.

Swoosh!

The sword rose in an elegant curve, cutting through the thighs, torso, and necks of the undead.

Swash!

The falling blade severed one of the abomination’s legs.

Swoosh!

With a dancer’s grace, she whirled, slicing through the bones of the skeleton archers.

Even adorned in thick armor, her movements were flexible and smooth.

Lady Trentia smashed a zombie’s head with the spike of her raised elbow, crippled a skeleton’s leg with a targeted kick, and headbutted a ghoul down with her helmet.

“I am Lady Trentia, knight of Duke Valencius! I shall grant you peace in your bodies.”

Her sword, lifted shoulder high, swung sharply, decapitating a zombie’s neck as though it were straw.

She dodged the downward punch of a six-meter-tall undead giant, cut its knees, and then cleaved its head down to its chest.

‘Hot.’

Shiiiing!

Red energies wafted like steam around her body.

‘So hot.’

She concealed her ecstatic expression behind her helmet while wielding her sword.

Shit!

A gigantic, flesh-crawling caterpillar approached, launching spikes at her.

Ping, ping, paring!

“Whoa?”

The spikes that slid precisely along the laid sword hit the zombies’ legs.

Lady Trentia charged vigorously, aiming to cleave the massive mass in half.

The red ribbons on her helmet and cloak fluttered magnificently.

The crew observed her, thinking she looked like an angel of a war god with an eternally beating heart.

“Return to hell!”

The red mana blade flared like flames, and her single sword vertically split the head of the mass.

Green bodily fluids splattered everywhere, releasing acrid steam, but she didn’t mind as she charged in, grabbing the flailing mass with her left hand and turning its face toward the undead.

The undead who met the acidic fluid began to melt away.

“Do you not see Duke Valencius and Duke Seberik?”

Amid her shout, a sailor atop the main mast replied.

“They are not in sight yet!”

Both Lysena and Trentia sighed deeply.

What was more terrifying than the undead was the thought of just one of those two returning.

Both held vague faith in their respective lords.

The reckless crown prince, who survived the Great Purge and grew rapidly, and the symbol of absolute strength, the Duke of the North.

They would find it hard to believe that they had fallen to mere undead giants.

In that moment, they feared what thoughts might arise.

‘If… if that were true.’

‘Even if it were true, no one would be able to accept it.’

The two briefly glanced at each other’s faces.

Though Trentia was wearing a helmet, Lysena was certain she was wearing the same expression.

‘If the Duke of the North were to kill the Crown Prince.’

“If the reckless prince were to kill His Grace.”

Just then, the sailor on the mast shouted.

“They are coming! They are coming! Both dukes and the maid are here!”

They both let out sighs of relief.

“Lady Lysena, thank goodness.”

“Yes, Lady Trentia.”

In the knowledge that they didn’t have to point their swords at each other.

* * *

The battlefield, now bolstered by a Sword Master and a top-class magic swordsman, became significantly more stable, and eventually, all the food was loaded onto the ships.

Hundreds of transport vessels began to sail north, then further north.

“What happened to you all?”

“It feels awkward.”

Duke Valencius and Duke Seberik exchanged cups, enjoying their newly formed friendship and survival.

“Ah…… I’ll go out for some air.”

“……I’ll go out with you.”

Seeing them, the two knights felt that their previous thoughts were very irreverent, and they stepped out into the cool breeze, wrapping their faces in their cloaks.