Chapter 304.
I retrieved the remains of the dragon tooth soldiers and those that were still intact, putting them into my pocket space before undoing the Firefly’s Bright Annihilation. Of the 28,000 soldiers in total, about 10,300 were intact. More than 5,500 needed simple repairs, and 6,000 were ruined to the point they had to be half-remade. I had no choice but to dispose of the rest completely.
However, the ones done in by my great-grandfather had turned completely into powder, so I didn’t have to dispose of them, which saved me some trouble.
"Then, shall we run?” I said to myself, while stretching and checking my body’s condition after the Curse of the Giants disappeared.
Just then, someone arrived behind me on a deer and said, "You’d better not do that.”
I turned my head to look at the person; it was Hestia noona. I asked, "Third Sister? Why are you here?”
Third Sister smiled gently and greeted me. "Long time no see, Youngest. You’ve gotten much taller since I last saw you.”
"Well, I was in my growing phase. What brings you here?” I asked.
Hestia noona got off the deer and said, "It’s nothing. Aunt Talaria, our secret agent working on the outside, has requested assistance from the village. So I came out for experience as the chief’s advisor, and as a military advisor for Father."
"Aunt? Wait. Military advisor? That means...!” I exclaimed, surprised.
Hestia noona nodded. "Right. The full force of our village is outside of Olympus Forest."
I couldn’t help but be shocked. "If it’s the full force, then the council of elders has also come out?!”
The council of elders was the strongest organization among the five major organizations in the village. If the warrior force and the guard division were for growing youth, then the council of elders was for older, stronger individuals who had mastered their martial arts. It contained only monsters that were on par with or stronger than dragons.
"Yeah. Of course, they didn’t come this far."
"They did well moving their heavy butts. They were the same old people who stayed put when I ran away without getting permission after being chosen as the successor,” I said admiringly.
In fact, when I ran away, I had taken into account that the council of elders likely wouldn’t make a move. If they had taken action, I would have been caught in less than a day.
Hestia noona smiled bitterly. "From their point of view, your running away was just a trivial accident made by a little troublemaker. There was also Father’s precedent as well.”
"I suppose compared to what Father did, my actions must have seemed cute."
They had probably laughed at me, saying I had been too quiet so far and that now I was really my father’s son. Back home, I had caused less trouble than my brothers, of course, but the same had even been true for my sisters.
"And even if you run away in your current state, Father will catch you soon, so give up,” Hestia added.
I frowned and pressed down on my forehead, troubled by Hestia’s point. "Kkeung~[1] That’ll likely happen, right?”
If I were in normal condition and the dragon tooth soldiers were fine, it wouldn’t have been impossible to run away. But my condition now was at its worst and my power had been cut in half. In addition, my use of mana was restricted for the time being because I had even used Firefly’s Bright Annihilation.
For now, waiting for my father calmly was the only way to increase my probability of escape.
"Why did Aunt ask for help from the village? If it’s our village’s force, it must be a pretty big deal,” I asked.
Hestia noona sighed. "Let’s go back to the main force of the imperial army first and talk about it then. You’re tired, and they should have almost arrived at Shellen Fortress by now."
They were much faster than I’d expected. I’d thought they would arrive tomorrow at the earliest. If I had known this would happen, I wouldn’t have had to deal with the Space Specialist and Curse Specialist.
"Uncle, Mac hyung. Wake up. How long are you going to remain sprawled out and asleep?” I woke up the two people who had fainted after being hit in the forehead by my great-grandfather’s strong aura.
"Kkeung, I’m dizzy.”
"Uwack, I’m getting nauseous. This is second place among the experiences I don’t want to have again.”
The two were struggling with the aftereffects of having been hit with the Curse of the Giants. But anyway, how painful had that terrible experience been for the curse to only come in second place?
"Ehew, tsk tsk. I couldn’t even overcome that. Tristan?" I clicked my tongue and called Tristan.
"Yeap. Did you call me, Master?" Tristan emerged in front of me from my pocket space. He was holding Yvain and Ovain, who had both been cut in half at the waist, in both hands.
"My lower body feels empty, Prince Crow!”
"What is this? Is this what it feels like to wear a skirt, Prince Crow?"
The twins smiled playfully and joked.
"Oh my. And these people are?" Hestia noona asked, looking curiously at the twins who were alive even after their lower bodies had been severed.
I answered the question as if it were nothing. "They’re my servants. Tristan, please take care of those two," I instructed, pointing to Uncle Bloody and Mac.
"Yeap, the servant has to listen to his master." Tristan roughly threw the twins away and picked up Uncle Bloody and Mac.
"Argh! So mean! I can’t believe you’d abandon your comrades who were cut in half!”
"Are you becoming like Prince Crow?"
"No! I’m sure he’s becoming like Mordred, not Prince Crow."
"No way! Mordred grew up naive, living only in a forest, and abandoned Tristan plenty of times!"
Yvain and Ovain spoke in turn as they complained to Tristan. Tristan simply kicked the twins in the back of the head, summoned a black horse, and put them on its back.
"Aigoo! Save me!”
"The wicked hunter is trying to kill us!”
In response to the twins’ dramatic behavior, Tristan smiled cheerfully and lifted them both, saying, "Ahahaha! No, you’re a dragon tooth soldier now, so you have to say ‘Save me, a dragon tooth soldier’." [2]
"Argh! You Farhan-like bastard!"
"Right! Farhan!"
The twins shouted Tristan’s real name, and Tristan threw the twins back into my pocket space without hesitation. He then suggested, "Well then, now that we’ve collected all the broken ones, and all the normal ones have entered the pocket space, let’s go now, Master."
I nodded and whistled to call my deer, which was still flying in the sky. I could barely use mana at all, so it was impossible to even unsummon the deer.
"Tristan, I’m hungry. Get me something to eat from the pocket space,” I said. I felt empty because I had vomited on an already empty stomach. But I couldn’t do anything about it myself, because I couldn’t even open my pocket space.
At my request, Tristan smiled and opened my pocket space, throwing bread at me before remarking, "What? Have I become Master’s nanny now?”
"Well, it’s kind of like that. You rose in status from a servant to a nanny in just three minutes,” I joked with Tristan as I bit down on the soft bread.
"I’m so thankful it makes me cry. Then, should I raise my status with the goal of becoming Master’s knight?” he responded.
"Then let’s go back, Noona,” I said, expecting no further inconveniences to happen.
I mounted the green deer with my white half-mask in my inner pocket. Then, I rode the deer through the sky and headed for the fortress, thinking, I’m glad I’m not the one injecting mana.
* * *
When we returned to Shellen Fortress, at a glance, hundreds of thousands of troops could be seen crowding around.
As we approached the fortress, Orphina’s Red Dragon Knights took off and flew up to us.
"Your Highness General Bloody?!"
Fortunately, the vigilant Red Dragon Knights who met us recognized Uncle Bloody.
"The vanguard’s Commander Bloody-nim! Commander-in-Chief Orphina-nim asked where you went and was searching for you!"
I smiled bitterly and spoke in Uncle Bloody’s place. "The vanguard commander is exhausted, so please tell her he’ll take a rest and visit later."
The Red Dragon Knight frowned and asked, "Who might you be?"
When I heard the knight’s question, I inspected my current appearance. My military uniform was a mess from dealing with the two great madosas, and my rank badge and unit mark had been torn to shreds.
"Oh, I’m Colonel Den from the staff office of the 3rd Command Headquarters,” I said.
The Red Dragon Knights suddenly saluted me. "Loyalty! We did not recognize the war hero. Forgive us, Colonel Den-nim."
"War hero?" I murmured, wondering about the cringy sound I had just heard for the first time.
Then Hestia noona, who was next to me, smiled playfully and said, "That’s right. It seems you’ve become famous? It made headlines in the newspaper. ‘Genius strategist! Eliminated the enemy’s vanguard in a single day of war!’ and ‘Colonel Den, who is he?! A hero who destroyed the invading country’s army in a week!’"
I frowned at Hestia noona’s playful explanation. "Did my father come to find me because my picture was in the newspaper?!”
"No, that’s not it. If your face had been in the newspaper, there’s no way those people wouldn’t recognize you.”
There was no way the prime minister would provoke me for nothing, doing something he knew I wouldn’t like. After all, to him, I was like an uncontrollable bomb that could explode at any moment. And yet, my name was in the newspaper. Was he not controlling the media?
"Then how?” I asked.
Hestia noona smiled lightly. "It’s just a coincidence. The original goal was Great-grandfather, but you happened to be here. The details are quite long, so let’s go to the quarters and talk."
I nodded and went down to Shellen Fortress.At the entrance of the castle in the center of the fortress, a familiar dragon stood out.
"Wow! Joy! It’s been a while!" I cried. But when I tried to approach the dragon, a whip came flying down and blocked me.
"This is Hargan, not Joy, Bloody’s nephew!" Orphina was wary of me, putting the dragon behind her. It seemed she was trying to protect the dragon from me.
I smacked my lips and said hello. "It’s been a while. Thank you for taking care of my uncle all this time."
Orphina faltered at my polite greeting. She didn’t seem to know how to respond to my unexpected approach. "Y-yes. Reportedly, you had the greatest achievement of this war."
"I want to say no, but I did go through quite a hard time,” I said.
Seeing my appearance, Orphina nodded. "Thanks to this, we were able to push for the cessation of hostilities very quickly, with few losses to the Empire."
"Well, that was the contract with His Highness Prime Minister,” I replied. Converting my distinguished war services into a reward would allow me to pick at least one pillar of the Empire.
"But I must still express my gratitude as the commander-in-chief. Although my family is the soldiers, I think war is a very inefficient and annoying thing. An army is a necessary evil that must be maintained,” Orphina remarked.
"Hahaha, I agree."
Orphina nodded and looked at Uncle Bloody. "Look at that idiot; he’s not in a state to listen. I don’t know what happened, but tell him to come to me as soon as he wakes up.”
Uncle Bloody was still drooped over, seemingly still suffering from the aftereffects of the Curse of the Giants.
"Yes. I’ll relay the message."
Upon hearing my answer, Orphina warned not to touch her dragon and entered the castle. I began heading to my barracks with Hestia noona. Suddenly, I felt a vast amount of magic above the castle, forming an explosion.
Boom-!
The Curse Specialist and Old Man Arpen fell from the sky.
"Stop fighting, you punks!" Elder Mirpa filled both hands with her martial aura and jumped out of the hole in the smashed castle.
"It’s been a while, my disciple!"
"Haha, it’s been a while."
It seemed my teacher-nim was getting along harmoniously with her friends, who had gathered for the first time in a long time.
If only a wall had been smashed, that could be considered ‘harmonious’ for Elder Mirpa, of course.
1. A whining sound.
2. It doesn’t make sense in English, but in Korean, the phrase “Save me” literally translates to “Save (this) person/human”. That’s why Tristan is saying he should say “Save (this) dragon tooth soldier” not “Save (this) person”.
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