Chapter 148

What happened after Grace bombarded me with kisses?

Surprisingly, nothing too chaotic occurred. Aside from Grace almost dying of embarrassment.

Fortunately, there was only Luna around to witness it. Even she just looked surprised and moved on.

“When did this start? Was it after that incident?”

“W-What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb. I can pick up on things, you know.”

Let me correct that. Instead of just being surprised, she became intensely curious.

At first, she only seemed to want to gauge the situation, but soon she couldn’t help but interrogate me level-of-inquisition style.

Grace tried to deny it, but maybe she realized she couldn’t keep hiding it, so she confessed.

“Honestly, don’t you admit it too, Luna? A knight straight out of a fairy tale actually showed up!”

“Hmm. Is that so?”

Everyone knows this, but Luna is completely clueless. To be precise, she doesn’t bother picking up on clues.

She’s the type that only focuses on her own business. Maybe she’s monitoring me because she knows my secret.

“What if it had been someone else and not Sivar? Would you have fallen for that person?”

“Well, I don’t know about that… Wait, that’s not the important thing right now, is it?”

Grace was almost swept away by Luna’s pace but quickly realized she needed to stay grounded.

Of course, Luna only asked such questions out of genuine curiosity. Just look at that blank expression on her face.

If she put some thought into it, she’d be fine, but she rarely thinks. In a way, she’s kind of like me.

“Anyway, since I’ve made a contract with Sivar, it’s important to fulfill it consistently. You agree, right, Sivar?”

“Yeah.”

“You can receive my kisses whenever you want. That’s part of the contract.”

“Even now?”

“Wha—”

My simple yet loaded question made Grace freeze.

Her face, already flushed, grew even redder. At this point, her brain must be racing.

“Grace, your face is completely red.”

“I-I know it! Anyway, Sivar, which part do you want? I’m okay with anywhere. For the honor of the Verche Duke’s Family!”

With her hand on her chest, Grace boldly stated that. A mix of noble dignity and girlish charm radiated from her.

It’s like she exudes both strength and cuteness. She’s quite a unique character in many ways.

But it’s all a joke, really. I responded bluntly.

“Not now. Later.”

“L-Later?”

“Yeah.”

In truth, I might not even do it. If strange rumors start circulating, it could harm Grace too.

I know very well what feelings she holds for me. But apart from that, civilization is complicated.

‘The family would cause a commotion.’

Grace is a duke’s daughter, which means her rank is among the top three in the Matra Empire.

Though the Verche Duke’s Family has a somewhat laissez-faire attitude, a noble is a noble.

They wouldn’t be thrilled about me getting close to Grace.

‘Politics in the Soul World was annoyingly messy as well.’

Fantasy worlds have a notably clear characteristic: power equals authority.

Take Rod as an example, since he’s nearby. Despite being a rogue with no title, he’s not treated lightly.

To politically challenge him, it would require a nation’s direct involvement to effectively tackle him. Rod is that valuable.

‘The ideal route is to grow stronger and naturally get involved in politics…’

In a world where power equals authority and political supremacy, most users prioritized gaining strength above all else.

What if one focused on politics instead of power? That would open up the gates of hell.

‘I really hate complicated matters.’

Of course, most of it can be resolved. No matter how grand a duke or an emperor may be, they all have weaknesses.

Finding and exploiting those weaknesses can give an edge, but the process is just too tedious.

So, it’s better to keep my distance from politics and slowly build my strength.

‘I kind of get why barbarians dislike civilized folks.’

Civilized people often come off as ruder than barbarians, because their skulls aren’t getting split open over impolite remarks.

It seems somewhat true, but it also highlights the need for politics.

Just because someone makes a rude remark, does everyone start smashing skulls? That leads straight into war.

I tend to lean more towards a barbaric nature, so I’d rather avoid politics as much as I can.

‘If I can’t avoid it, then…’

I’ll take it as fate and accept it. Hope the freshman gathering goes smoothly.

“Oh! We’re here! Everyone! Grace successfully made the contract!”

“Really? No way!”

“We won! Now we just have to capture the castle!”

In the brief moment I was distracted with thoughts, Grace’s team reached the occupied area.

As soon as I arrived, the team cheered. They were already intoxicated with victory.

“Everyone, calm down. The exam isn’t over yet. Also, with Sivar here, our supplies will inevitably decrease. Keep that in mind.”

Grace restrained her cheering teammates. Dousing the heated atmosphere was a necessary action.

As she said, it was natural that our supplies would dwindle now that I had shown up.

To seize victory, we need to maximize our resources. I intend to put in the effort, myself.

“Above all, just having Sivar here doesn’t mean we win. Strong weapons are meaningless if our tactics are flawed. So, it’s crucial we plan our strategy first.”

Even if you gain the upper hand in strategy, it’s useless if the tactics fail. The reverse is also true.

Afterward, Grace began devising tactics with her team. The key was how to tackle the castle walls.

Although teams gathered as many siege weapons as they could find, the problem lay in transportation. They were just too heavy to move properly.

“At least the ones on wheels were manageable, but we kept getting ambushed… We managed to scrounge together some shells, but we only have two catapults and three cannons.”

“Umm…”

The number of siege weapons was absolutely insufficient. The walls were quite solid, so this wouldn’t be enough.

Most of the leadership in that team would probably fall to Kara, so we could say it’s her handiwork.

It illustrated how important real combat experience is and the differences in strategies and tactics produce results.

‘That catapult is much bigger than what we tested before.’

While Grace’s team discussed opinions, I checked the state of the siege weapons and projectiles.

For starters, the shells proved to be a decent amount. They seemed to have gathered whatever they could find.

The issue lay with the siege weapons. Besides the one catapult in good shape, the cannons were in poor condition.

‘I doubt it can fire more than a few times before it bursts. Not all of them are of good quality.’

It felt like they had suffered greatly from the enemy’s guerrilla tactics during combat.

Kara, being a warrior who executed countless guerrilla operations during the tribal alliance, was quite adept in such matters.

Conversely, this means she would be vulnerable to siege warfare, given Tartar’s distance from castles.

‘First, I should fire one and gauge the reaction.’

I dragged the catapult to a visible area of the castle.

Grace’s team shifted their gaze towards me upon seeing my actions.

“Sivar? What are you doing?”

“I’m going to test this.”

“Test the catapult?”

“Yeah. Performance trial.”

Having observed the might of the cannon, but never the catapult, I figured I might as well check the enemy’s response.

After all, I’d be throwing with my bare hands, but I’m still curious. I can’t help it.

“Hmm… One should be fine. Is there anyone here who knows how to use a catapult?”

“I’m not familiar with catapults either…”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just grab more cannons instead?”

Maybe because it’s such an old weapon, but it seemed everyone was clueless. But wasting the cannons felt too unfortunate.

Eventually, everyone joined forces, attempting to ascertain how to operate the catapult. Fortunately, the principle itself was simple.

“Why bring this instead of a trebuchet? We have cannons as well.”

“We had a trebuchet too; we just couldn’t carry it.”

“Cannons are definitely smaller.”

I wound the tension on the cord to its limit—enough for the wooden rotation to feel stiff.

Since I planned to fire from as far away as possible, this much was essential. Without my strength, it would take others forever to turn it.

Ugh—

“Eh?”

Suddenly, an uneasy sound caught my attention. I glanced at the rotation mechanism, wondering what was up.

It looked fine on the surface. It must have just been caused by winding it to the limits.

Now, the only thing left to do was place the shell onto the catapult.

“Alright. Fire.”

“…What are you doing? Get down and stop messing around.”

But perhaps from being too bored, I sat on the catapult with the shell and said “fire.”

If I let it fire as is, my body would shoot off like the shell towards the castle. Literally a human cannonball.

Of course, I had no intention of pulling such a stunt. Well, to be honest, I might entertain the thought but would really refrain since this is a test.

Crack—

But maybe it was destiny’s prank. Or perhaps it was due to pulling the cord beyond its limit.

From that cord, a foreboding sound, beyond discomfort, broke the silence. Even Grace, who had been urging me down, widened her eyes in shock.

“What the hell was that sound…”

Boom!

And that became the last sound I heard.

******

Although Kara hadn’t signed a contract with Sivar, it didn’t matter to her.

She wasn’t particularly concerned about the exam, and she had already achieved her intended goals.

So, she planned to tackle this final exam with ease. No matter what Sivar would do, she could merely chuckle at it.

“Are you sure it’s okay? Do you know what that guy might pull?”

“It’s fine. I’m expecting him to throw shells with his bare hands.”

“No, that wasn’t even my concern.”

As a firsthand witness to Sivar’s power, this was pardonable to say.

His might is comparable to or even exceeds Hector’s. Additionally, Kara knows just how strong Hector’s strength is.

It would be trivial for him to fire shells faster than a cannon. She had already requested mages to enhance the castle walls’ strength.

‘If we want to break through the castle, he’ll have to come directly. Just need to hold out a while and retreat.’

Even if Sivar comes to seize the castle himself, she wouldn’t mind. In fact, she planned on cleanly giving up the castle.

Precisely, as she would aim to seize the opponent’s stronghold in the meantime. This would cut off supplies and also break her contract with Sivar.

With a scheme set up, Kara felt relaxed. Even if things went sideways, she could just laugh it off.

As mentioned earlier, she wasn’t particularly invested in the exam. It would be better if the exam ended quickly.

-······Aaaah!

“Eh?”

Suddenly, a strange noise reached Kara’s ears. Antonio, who was beside her, felt the same thing.

At first, they wondered what the sound was, but soon enough, they realized. The noise just kept growing louder.

“What is that?!”

“Don’t tell me…?”

As they turned their sights toward the source of the noise, their reactions were completely different.

Antonio looked puzzled, while Kara looked horrified.

Other students reacted similarly. What had once been a tiny dot in the sky was slowly becoming clearer.

“Waaaaaah!”

It was Sivar. He wasn’t a shell flying toward the castle; he was heading straight for it.

Not even aiming at the walls, but directly towards the inside of the castle.

“Get down! Move!”

“W-What the heck is going on?!”

Everyone, including Kara, panicked at the sudden appearance of the human cannonball. This was due to pulling the catapult’s tension beyond its limits.

Thankfully, quickly reacting, Kara ensured the students dodged the projectile. The real issue was the human projectile himself.

<BANG! CRACK! CRASH!>

Sivar, the human cannonball, landed firmly on a makeshift structure where supplies were stored.

Specifically, the area that could be considered the most crucial: the drinking water. The carefully stored water was now spilled everywhere.

With this single attack, their power was drastically diminished, but that wasn’t the end of it.

“Ouch…”

Amid the cloudy dirt, Sivar stood up. Looking surprisingly unharmed.

However, just like the cannonball, even he had received a shock as he rubbed his head.

“…”

“…”

Kara, Antonio, and the other students stared at him silently. None could comprehend how this situation had unfolded.

As Sivar tended to his head, he began walking slowly. As he did, the students instinctively adopted combat stances.

It was like lightning struck from a clear sky. Yet, it was still something they had anticipated. They were prepared to fight Sivar already.

Step by step—

“…Where’s he headed?”

“W-Who knows?”

But Sivar didn’t engage in battle. He simply walked toward the castle gate.

Once he arrived at the castle gate, Sivar gazed up at the firmly closed doors before turning back.

“Open it.”

“W-What?”

“Open it. This isn’t it.”

Sivar stepped out on his own. The students guarding the gate exchanged glances before their attention turned to Kara.

Kara felt just as uncertain but decided it was probably best to go along with what Sivar wanted.

“Open the gate.”

“T-That’s… Sure.”

Creeeaaak—

At Kara’s command, the gate began to rise. As soon as it opened, Sivar took slow steps past it.

“…This is fun.”

He muttered something completely bewildering.

‘Don’t tell me he’s going to fly back?!’

Just like they say, you can’t underestimate the unpredictable.

“Woooooooah!”

“Stop it already!”

A few more somersaults followed.

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