Chapter 182: Thunderstrider
‘Family.’
Ramin Solost Muel stared at the man who introduced himself as Hwee Juran Muel. The pair of antlers on his head felt somewhat familiar to Ramin. Those were the very antlers that Hwee-Kyung had in the distant past. So to Ramin, it seemed plausible that Hwee-Kyung was his ancestor.
Therefore, she raised a different question, "The assumption is wrong. I don't consider Hwee-Kyung my parent. Vampires don't see the person who made them a Vampire as a parent just because they made them a Vampire.”
"Then how do you see her?"
“Uh, well… It’s complicated. I don’t want to talk about it.”
"Can’t you at least say if you lean more toward positive or negative about it?"
"If you insist on framing it as positive or negative, it's closer to the negative. It's different from other species, who willingly embrace family."
“But being a family is sharing the same blood with others that otherwise would have been a stranger, and living together even though they don’t get along too well.”
Ramin looked at Juran as if he was ridiculous.
"Come to think of it, maybe there's more positives than negatives."
"As you said, willingly accepting each other is also considered family."
Ramin looked to Gorgota Falu for some help, but Gorgota was currently focused on driving. Then she looked at Mazdari.
Mazdari said, “Juran is my Wizard student.”
"Our family has been managing the Wizard Tower since my great-grandmother's time."
“Hwee Ravida Muel was my friend,” Mazdari explained. "From what the gods have told me, Ramin, you are the only living person in Black Scale who has met Hwee-Kyung. Besides you, it's difficult to find any clues to locate Hwee-Kyung."
Ramin was taken aback. "Hwee-Kyung did turn me into a Vampire, but our relationship wasn't that deep. I was born and raised in Danly, but it was a long time ago. I also don’t think Hwee-Kyung would stay at one place for too long."
"It doesn't matter. It's better than having no clues. None of us here have even met Hwee-Kyung. It's only natural for someone who has met her in person to come forward and help."
Mazdari then pointed at Juran.
“And we don’t need to find the exact location. As long as we can narrow the range, the antlers that Juran has will sense Hwee-Kyung.”
Juran nodded.
“Based on what my antlers have said, apparently it can sense its former host as long as we share the same bloodline.”
Ramin replied, “Alright. If this is all the will of the Pantheon, then I should follow it. But why do we have to find Hwee-Kyung?”
“That’s a secret.”
Ramin tried to read Mazdari’s expression, but Mazdari showed no tells. It wasn’t difficult for the Garuda to hide his thoughts from her because they were of different species. Even if they were both Garudas, however, it would still be nearly impossible to figure out Mazdari’s innermost thoughts.
“We’re here, Honorable Apostle.”
"Continue driving into the airport, Agent."
"Pardon?"
Ramin turned to look at the front of the vehicle. A large airship settled next to the airship terminal building. It resembled a massive, streamlined Whale made from a wooden frame with a pair of enormous helix wings for propulsion affixed to its sides.
Mazdari said, "That airship docked over there is the one we'll be boarding, the Thunderstrider."
***
Many soldiers were already aboard the Thunderstrider.
Gorgota then said to Ramin, who looked around in suspicion, "Even when I was a soldier, the Thunderstrider was famous. It performed more than fifty missions, going between the eastern and southern fronts, and it has never crashed. It's considered a legendary airship, often regarded as a symbol of victory by each military unit."
"Well, I don't know much about recent wars, but it doesn't seem heavily armed for something like that. Can one airship make such a significant impact on the battlefield?"
"Well, because it's the airship Mazdari would be on."
"...I see."
Then from the flight deck Mazdari said, “If possible, the goal is to take this airship all the way to the western continent."
"If possible?"
"It might be challenging. The Thunderstrider can fly at high altitudes, and with my magic, we could reach even greater heights than average."
"But?"
"Danly should be aware of that as well."
Once the hydrogen was fully injected into the envelope of the airship, it lifted and hovered above the ground. The Thunderstrider was now tethered to the ground only by a few ropes.
"If we're lucky, we might even make it to the western continent in one go, avoiding the eyes of The Angry One and the Dragon Knight of Danly."
"And if we're not lucky?"
"We wouldn’t be able to cross the frontline."
As the Lizardman captain of the Thunderstrider commanded, the crew members cut off the ropes at the same time.
The Thunderstrider began to ascend.
Then Ramin said with anticipation, “Then the plan would be delayed?”
“Not a chance,” Mazdari replied. "One way or another, we have to cross the frontline."
"But even if we make it to the bottom of the southern continent controlled by the Union Kingdom via land, how do we cross the sea?"
"Getting the empire’s assistance is tricky, so we'll have to smuggle ourselves in somehow. Fortunately, if we can get on board a ship without being noticed, searching for us within the Union Kingdom won't be too rigorous."
“Well, it’s a problem even after we arrive on the western continent. There’s a high chance we would get caught inside the Union Kingdom, isn’t there?”
"The Union Kingdom is well-connected with railways, just like the Empire.”
Ramin measured the time of the long journey.
"Then we might not be able to return even by next semester?"
"Aren't you concerned about dying first?"
"Us Vampires consider themselves to have died once already, so we don’t really hold onto the idea of death.”
Mazdari raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting. Anyway, if you don’t want this journey to be rough, you should hope this Thunderstrider does its part.”
Ramin sighed.
For some reason, she felt that things wouldn’t go so smoothly.
***
Somewhere on the southern continent, in the Danly Union Kingdom, someone was standing on top of the demolished ancient ruin. In fact, describing them as standing would be somewhat inaccurate because this person was a Lamia.
While the upper body of a Lamia bore a resemblance to Humans or Elves, the lower half was that of a snake with a long tail. This snake tail was so long and thick that Lamias were once considered monsters by other creatures until just a few centuries ago.
To players of The Lost World, Lamias were known as a rare species like Centaurs and Garudas. It was difficult for such species to increase their number; they were strong and intelligent, but had difficulty maintaining relationships with other species. In terms of social difficulties, Lamias had more difficulties than other species, and because of that, they were often abandoned by many players.
It was because Lamias were prone to cannibalism that it was harder for them to establish long-lasting alliances. Even when allied with other species, some Lamia individuals were known to kidnap and eat the young from their allied species, which was why there had been no cases where an alliance lasted long.
Like other species that weren’t chosen by players, extinction was a common occurrence with Lamias by the middle of the game. Of course, just like many species that were somehow suppressing their inherent natures, this female Lamia was doing the same to some extent.
Anyone who saw the black uniform and epaulet she wore on her upper body would recognize her as a member of the Danly Union Kingdom, and any Black Scale soldier who fought on the southern frontlines would have heard rumors of her, or at least heard of her name.
“Here you were, Alma Alloy.”
The Lamia, Alma, turned around.
Standing there was a Fang agent with a red mask and black clothes.
“Del. I heard the operation in Vaseniol failed.”
The plan was to recruit an important person in Vaseniol and spread a massive Zombie epidemic. Alma was already aware of the plan and its failure. One of the individuals they intended to use in the plan had acted contrary to their expectations. Perhaps the plan was flawed from the beginning.
The intelligence agency of Black Scale had already known about the Zombie epidemic that Danly had thought they had secretly transported.
Del lowered their head. "I apologize."
"No. I don’t want to blame you, and I'm not sure if I even have the right to do so. I've failed many tasks that the Angry One demanded as well."
Del shook their head and looked at Alma.
Alma Alloy was the fifth apostle of the Angry One. On the second continent—referred to as the western continent by Black Scale and the central continent by Danly—she was a war hero who had achieved numerous victories during the unification war of the Union Kingdom. Her exceptional physical abilities as a Lamia was outstanding, but she was famous for her commanding tactics on the battlefield and her charisma with her soldiers. She was also known as the Saint of Sacrifices and the Snake that Swallowed Its Tail, as she willingly sacrificed her life for the Angry One even though she knew she would die.
Del then said, "While you were in command, the northern front never fell to Black Scale."
"And it didn’t get pushed back either. But enough with the lip service, Del. We know how fearsome the forces of the Devil and his subordinates are."
Within the Union Kingdom, the Night Sky was collectively referred to as the Devil, and it was common for Black Scale Empire to be perceived as an evil empire. Such propaganda strategies were often used in The Lost World. They aimed to boost the morale of subjugated individuals and make war and war crimes more acceptable by demonizing the enemy.
However, Sung-Woon found it challenging to implement such a strategy actively. Firstly, the Black Scale Empire's doctrine was that the enemy was ignorant and would ultimately be embraced as allies. Therefore, promoting the idea of absolute evil existing could lead to ideological contradictions. This was a mistake that beginner players in The Lost World often made.
If a player implemented more than one strategy in a game, the individuals under the player's control would become confused and have difficulty maintaining faith. They couldn't handle the conflicting situations and would abandon their faith, rebel, or even be absorbed by hostile forces.
And there was another matter that Sung-Woon considered. In this Lost World, a real evil seemed to exist. Those known as the ancient evil were the most difficult for players to deal with and could pose unexpected threats. In such a situation, if the Union Kingdom were declared an absolute evil, it could be problematic when the real evil emerged. Of course, Hegemonia believed they could overcome any situation on their own, so they didn't pay much attention to such matters.
Alma asked, "So, you have news to deliver?"
"Yes. One of our informants reported that one of the Empire's Apostles has left the front lines and is on the move."
"An Apostle, you say?"
"Yes, the Third Seat."
Alma furrowed her eyebrows.
“...Corpse Crow. The bird that wields the detestable power of the Devil."
To Alma, who was the commander, he was not just troublesome, but a terrifying presence.
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