Sword Pilgrim

"If you don't want to die, leave."

His sword drawn, Callius oversaw the evacuation of the villagers with sharp eyes.

"Sir Callius. We've evacuated everybody!"

“Sending them to Jevarsch….”

"It's all done!"

After evacuating the villagers near the border, Callius looked towards the horizon.

Having already passed several villages, the Orcs were now drawing near to the heart of the North, and they were occupying or setting fire to all the villages in their way.

Jevarsch.

Step by step, towards the Jervain Castle.

The Greenskins were slowly approaching.

‘Should have killed a few more in the forest.'

There were more Orcs than I expected.

Moreover, as we were leaving the forest, we were outnumbered and could not attack hastily.

I thought about occupying the village and engaging them in urban warfare, but I discarded the notion.

The Knights didn't have infinite stamina.

In addition, the Orcs would have an advantage over the Knights in that kind of street fights across buildings.

‘It's just B rank, but it's already becoming difficult.'

I don't want S+ grade rewards, but shouldn't at least A+ grade be possible?

If the reward is a sword, or something related to swords, just one grade difference will have a huge impact on how easily I can overcome the looming crisis.

Originally, even a single falling leaf can be the difference between ruin and survival during a crisis.

It's still too early to be satisfied here.

It's a quest that will never come again.

"Sir Callius! We must evacuate quickly."

"Let's go, Prince[1] Callius."

It was Allen and Aaron.

Allen, the Knight with the young face, considered him a Knight and called him Sir, while Aaron looked at his Jervain hair and eyes, so called him by a noble title.

He looked at the two of them and pondered for a moment, then shook his head. It didn't matter what he was called.

Rather, there was something more urgent.

Now the time for rescuing the Knights was over.

Since they'd left the forest, it'd be hard to save anybody for a while unless they intended to fight the Orcs head-on.

‘Considering the quest, we have to reduce their numbers at least a little bit more before we go to Jevarsch. That way the main characters will have better odds to survive.'

Although it's not shown in such detail, the higher the death toll amongst those likely to become the core of the North in the future, the worse the quest's reward level will become.

‘The Orcs will try to destroy the castle.'

There's no avoiding a siege.

The battlefield will teeter between victory and defeat, each fleeting moment an arbiter of life and death.

So, now –

‘I have to gnaw at their numbers, even if only the slightest bit.'

The Orc frontline still numbered only a little over one hundred.

If that's the case, it's still worth doing.

If they join the Orcs slowly advancing from the rear, the overall number would be over a thousand. So, I have to kill some….

Callius observed the state of the Knights waiting for him.

Knights with frayed, worn-out armour and dulled swords who had been running and fighting repeatedly for the past few days without even being able to sleep properly.

Thanks to that, most of them were in rather terrible condition.

Besides, they all had suffered major and minor injuries here and there, making the scene even more tragic.

"Fuck, come on! They're saying we have to go."

"Noisy."

Even if somebody is overflowing with energy, it's unknown if he has a brain, so his condition can't be said to be very good either.

Still, I have to kill some more Orcs… Is there no way?

"Master! Let's drink some of this water! The water here is really cold and sweet!"

Water?

Where did water come from all of a sudden?

"Is there a well here?"

"Yeah! It's right over there."

As Callius looked at the large well at the centre of the village, he suddenly remembered the stigma engraved on the back of his hand.

Fuck.

Yes, there is this one way.

"Good job, Bruns."

"Yes, yes?!"

Bruns, suddenly receiving Callius' praise for the first time in his life, stiffened with a puzzled face.

Leaving him standing there frozen, Callius immediately took out a pouch from the stigma and dumped its contents into the well.

Tak, ttak.

In the forest near Jevarsch.

Callavan was biting his nails nervously as he waited for someone.

"Brother. Are you here?"

"Lutheon!"

Callavan grabbed the person who appeared suddenly, and stared at him with bloodshot eyes that seemed positively murderous.

"Why didn't you tell me! There are so many Orcs out there!"

"Calm down, brother Callavan. What's the problem?"

"Isn't this a problem! The whole northern border! The pillar of Carpe is being ravaged by those savages!"

The usual Callavan, who always had a relaxed smile on his face, was nowhere to be found.

He now looked like a gambler who had squandered all his fortune at the gambling den.

The man called Lutheon shook off Callavan's hands without difficulty.

His two hands had enough power to force away Callavan's strong hands, trained for decades, very easily.

"Brother. Everything is going according to plan. Only in this way will you be able to inherit the North's heritage intact. Only then can we be rewarded for our efforts."

“… You're sure.”

"Yes. Flightless Dragons in their nests are just prey, aren't they?"

A wounded Dragon in its nest is just a wild beast.

"The current Jervain Patriarch."

Elburton von Jervain.

"You have to be prepared for at least this amount of bloodshed if you want to catch him. Krasion supports brother Callavan. How can you succeed in such a great cause when you get excited so easily? You have to be more poised."

"… Yes. I got too excited. It was all thanks to Krasion that I was able to get this far, but I forgot that for a moment."

"Yes, yes. I understand. Now, the highlands are just around the corner. By sacrificing the green filth of the North, a new master of Jervain will be born. Let's just wait quietly for now. Those Greenskins will take care of everything."

The man called Lutheon assured Callavan like that, and then slowly turned his head.

At his slight nod, the hooded and masked ones behind him straightened their backs.

In their hands, for a brief moment, flashed the blue blades of spears.

‘They're going to arrive tomorrow.'

Callius, who had taken refuge in the nearby mountains for a while to avoid the advance of the Orcs, breathed in the bleak pre-dawn air.

The Cloak of Twilight warded away the cold, but after fighting and running for days, his whole body was drenched with sweat.

"I want to wash."

But there was no room for that kind of luxury.

<Reward> [B+]-???

Callius' gray eyes turned calm as he saw a Knight approaching him.

"What the hell is happening… I heard that nothing like this has happened in nearly a hundred years…"

He was a Knight belonging to the Jervain family.

It was not completely unprecedented, but this was the first time that so many Orcs had pushed in so indiscriminately.

Originally, battles between Jervain and the Orcs had happened before.

However, their battles over the White Forest never ended decisively for either side, and so their war had continued endlessly.

"It's just a result of time and planning."

“… What do you mean?”

“It just means that the time has come.”

What was always about to happen had finally happened.

Fatalite's Wheel originally was that kind of a story.

‘Orcs and Jervain.'

The White Forest and the beasts at its centre.

A Wheel that keeps turning.

And the forces trying to reach out to those demonic beasts using the Wheel –

‘They're playing their own game.'

Who would want to see Jervain fall the most? Which nation?

"The Empire."

The fanatics who call themselves the only "Holy Empire" and worship the God of Creation.

I don't know how they tricked the Orcs into this.

But it won't be that easy.

‘I can't let them ruin Carpe.'

The village was already full of Orcs.

It was around lunchtime when the Knights rescued by Callius had left the village.

It was already almost dawn now.

The Orcs would occupy the village, rest, and set off again in the morning.

At their speed, they would knock on the castle gates in three days, leading to a battle.

After that, the rest of the Orc army would arrive, bringing even more chaos to the battlefield.

So before that, Callius needed to reduce their numbers, even if only a little.

Seok.

As Callius got up and put Lucen and Loas around his waist, the Knights who had been resting froze at the sight.

They seemed to know why their saviour was moving.

There were some who rose, some who couldn't decide whether to rise or not, and some who sat and sent anxious glances.

The total number was forty-four.

Originally, more than three hundred had entered the White Forest.

They were the only ones left.

Heads, shoulders, and legs were all covered in bandages.

Their eyes fluttered aimlessly, and they trembled with anxiety.

Their sword arms, full of hesitation.

They'd fought in the forest, escaped, and then fought again. By the time they had reached this hiding place they were already trembling in fear, their bodies refusing to move any further.

It'd only been half a day since then, so when thinking of moving again, this was the natural result.

They needed to take a break, they really needed rest.

Callius looked at the horizon in the distance.

The sky was utterly dark.

The darkest hour, just before sunrise.

He put his hand on the hilt.

"They will go to Jevarsch."

The castle that was the seat of Jervain, who represented the North.

It was the Orcs' final destination.

"Sooner or later, they will destroy the gates, and eventually kill everyone in the castle. The northern parts of the Kingdom will then be theirs."

It was their long-awaited dream.

To become the Ruler of the North.

To reclaim their ancestral lands.

They had such a destiny.

"But I'm not going to let that happen."

Strength seeped into the Knights' sword arms at that declaration.

Callius was speaking calmly, but there was some kind of power in his voice.

An assertiveness, and confidence.

And the arrogance, characteristic of aristocrats.

Together, those qualities emanated the presence of Callius von Jervain.

"Our enemies are over a hundred, but there are only forty of us."

Nevertheless –

"I will go meet them."

We need to reduce that number a bit.

That way, the rewards will be higher.

An opportunity that will never come again.

You can't just be satisfied with a B+.

"It's reckless…"

A young Knight bit his lip and spoke. There was no strength in his voice, his head down and his gaze towards the ground.

He was trembling.

‘His name was Allen, he said.'

Even in the forest, he was a brave Knight who'd followed Callius without hesitation.

But now, he was trembling with fear. He was afraid.

Was it your first large-scale battle?

That blond hair is like Leone, although the age is closer to mine, so it keeps catching my eye.

"It's not reckless. That's not the last of them. Even if it's a hundred now, their number will grow more and more as the days go by."

If it's a hundred now –

In the end, it will become thousands.

It's not some simple quest that ends overnight.

‘But by the same token, the level of compensation can increase exponentially.'

It's still fine.

Before that great army of thousands arrives –

Right now, when those Orcs are blindly slaughtering the village's food supply, is an opportunity.

The time now is before sunrise, the darkest hour that precedes that dawn.

The odds have already been adjusted.

"There is a reason why we evacuated the villagers but left all the food in the village untouched."

"What's the reason…?"

Callius had bought a lot of things in Tristar.

And going through that purchase history, one could find some things that were quite useful even during a war.

Because most of the ingredients of the Holy Water… were quite poisonous.

Editor's Notes:

[1] 공 (gong) is a noble title that's often short for Duke, but here we're going with Prince from context.

Do the readers remember Lutheon? First mentioned in chapter 4. This isn't the last we see of him.