Chapter 119 — Beyond the Wall
Evil beings had slaughtered countless humans across the entire continent. Not even those who stood at the highest rungs had been spared.
"Sir Imran Akran was routed? He's a Master—how could……"
"Sir Sebi Belgrade was gravely wounded as well."
"We're better off than most. Angel Gueria, Master of Gardia, apparently fought to the very end and died in battle."
As refugees and the wounded flooded in from all directions, the rumors spread like wildfire.
"Just how powerful are those Legion Commanders?"
"It seems even swordsn who've reached the supre level can only buy ti. The soldiers returning from the front lines have seizures at the re ntion of their nas."
"No. From what I heard, the problem was a lack of ti. To cut off their breathing, you'd need to focus on one at a ti—but when has a battlefield ever been so accommodating? It's that the imperial forces failed to hold the line properly."
And that collective fear quickly transford into a single question.
"Then what about the Mountain Rabbits? How exactly did that man, Calix, drive them off?"
"……It has to be a lie. He just got lucky. It doesn't make any sense."
So marveled, while others openly suspected it was all fabricated. Yet no matter what the gossips had to say, the truth was undeniable.
They had won.
Across the entire continent, they alone had driven back the enemy and saved the capital of Astria.
That was precisely the reason.
Why the rcenaries could not turn a deaf ear to the Mountain Rabbits' call.
The rcenary Guild's summons traced its origins back hundreds of years, to Lionel Bargard, the founding king of the Kingdom of Gardia. He had raised a banner and gathered wanderers scattered across every corner of the continent.
By assembling tens of thousands of warriors in this way and standing against De Generitum, the people gave him the na 'King of rcenaries'.
Power, however, does not hold without those who follow it. In practice, the summons had been issued several more tis after that, yet no one succeeded. The calls of those in high places were openly ignored, and those on equal footing were more likely to face retaliation.
"A summons? You? For ?"
"Four knots…… So what of it?"
rcenaries—those who earned their living by the weight of blood. They would swarm in when war broke out and contracts were available, but they reacted with extre sensitivity to forced conscription. They would slip away to sowhere near the border, or cross into another country entirely.
Without gain, they do not gather.
Yet today, the circumstances had changed.
"Head west and there's nothing but desert."
"There's nowhere left to run. What do we do?"
"Well…… we side with whoever's winning."
Before long, the justification was made perfectly complete.
The head of the rcenary Guild of the Astria Kingdom had gone to the Mountain Rabbits himself.
"……Gallen."
"Royce, it has been a while."
The retired rcenary, Gallen, looked at Calix for a brief mont before limping forward. He had not co for idle conversation.
Thud.
He lowered himself onto one knee and reached out toward Royce's waist. His weathered hands found the rcenary tag hanging on the right side of the belt.
Below the wooden tag engraved with the Mountain Rabbit emblem hung a short rope. Four knots. The symbol of the highest-ranking rcenary company in the kingdom.
And now, one more knot was added. He gathered the end of the rope and tied it in the way that only wanderers know—a knot that would never co undone.
The Mountain Rabbits are rcenaries. Or rather, were rcenaries. A rcenary company with a thousand cavalry and swarming with non-human races simply could not exist in this world.
And for that very reason, they had earned the right to be the bearers of the fifth knot.
"With this, among those who traverse the land, defy the waters, and dwell in no fixed place, you have beco the highest of all."
"……"
"Please accept our reverence, our highest glory."
This was, in other words, another na for responsibility. It was as though not rely the Astria Kingdom, but the collective will of all humanity had been gathered here.
The elves and dwarves tilted their heads in puzzlent, but the veteran Mountain Rabbits suppressed their swelling emotions and waited for Royce's decision.
A mont later, when the captain of the Mountain Rabbits gave a single nod, those watching erupted in a unified cheer. The sounds of drums, horns, and whistles mingled and rang out—yet before long, they would co to truly feel the weight of what that mont ant.
rcenaries from across the entire continent gathered at Star Haven.
Their number reached a staggering fifteen thousand.
* * *
Outside the outer walls, the Mountain Rabbits' encampnt bustled with the crowds pouring in from all directions.
The rcenaries' origins were truly varied. There was a man who had been doing piracy out of the Latia Republic, others who had been active in the Niboria Empire, and on rare occasion, soone had even drifted in from the far northeast—the Trinora Confederation.
Yet among them, those who could boast the greatest numbers were the rcenaries of the Astria Kingdom. To na one example, there was the Grima rcenary Company, who had been making the rounds along the western frontier.
"Volga! My brother!"
"……Who are you?"
"Ha-ha, really now. We fought off the sandworms together and pushed forward, didn't we? I'm Zoltan of Grima. Have you already forgotten?"
Volga eventually managed to recall their connection.
"Ahh, that ti we t on the road heading toward Count Mozak's territory……"
"That's right, exactly! See? I told you we knew each other!"
"That shaless one?"
"……Well, you do know !"
The unit mbers' gazes were cutting, but Zoltan had sothing to show for himself as well. The knots on Grima's tag had quietly grown to three.
"Brother, in any case, I'd like to ask a favour. I've got fifty mouths to feed under
alone, and there are other rcenary companies I brought over from the west who are still waiting outside. Could you bump up our turn a little?"
"That's sothing you'd need to talk to that new recruit over there about."
"New recruit?"
"That blond-haired one over there."
He turned his head in the direction Volga was pointing. There stood a young man guiding the company leaders one by one.
None other than Adrian Deconti.
"How am I supposed to handle this all by myself……"
"You're the new recruit."
"That may be so, but does it make any sense that there are a thousand people senior to ? When you get down to it, we joined at nearly the sa ti!"
He tried to push back, but the elves and dwarves clicked their tongues and shook their heads. They had, for all practical purposes, moved up to mid-level standing.
"Tsk, tsk, humans…… And you've never even fought against the Niboria imperial forces."
"New recruit is the right word for it."
"……Tsk, tsk, and a new recruit is—"
"Don't repeat yourself!"
Regardless, Zoltan could not afford to back down so easily. rcenaries who had flooded in from all directions were filling the plains, and among them were no shortage of well-known nas.
Securing Grima's position was also the duty of a rcenary company leader.
"Volga, just this once."
"No."
"Co now……"
But contrary to his hopes, a firm refusal ca back. He had been trying sohow to persuade him, but the mont his eyes t the young man before him, all movent ceased.
A composed expression. Eyes that had sunk deep and still. While he had been growing the Grima rcenary Company, Volga too had been sharpening his substance.
'The green youth I first t is long gone…… A veteran who's been through every hardship stands in his place.'
In an instant, the asure was taken. The way he stood, the instinctive calibration of distance from those around him, the sharpened edge that showed through even without effort. Experience accumulated through brushing against the line of life and death, ti and again, had turned an inexperienced rcenary into a promising warrior.
"I'll see you later, then."
"……Right. Yes, let's do that."
He felt no unpleasantness at the plain farewell. He had experienced firsthand the reputation of the Mountain Rabbits.
'It wasn't only Calix who was exceptional.'
Zoltan watched Volga's retreating figure. He glanced at the sight of Romance and Kotchap sparring, then soon walked further into the encampnt.
Crack!
"This bastard, using energy so cheaply……"
"……Who's losing?"
Naturally, their level made itself known. Those who had once run wild without restraint, were easily frightened, and had no idea what to do had grown into sothing weighted.
He could no longer pester them.
And so the leader of Grima cleanly gave up and decided to choose another option.
"Captain, what do we do now?"
"……We target the new recruit. No matter how great the Mountain Rabbits are, even they can't have soone who just joined be exceptional."
Over fifty unit mbers looked at the blond-haired young man.
"You sure about that? There has to be sothing worth trusting."
"Co now! Just wait right here. That one's missing an arm and seems to be carrying so painful story of his own…… talking a greenhorn like that around my finger is nothing."
Had he bothered to listen to what the locals were saying, he would have recognized the identity of that 'greenhorn' in no ti.
He did not know.
That for the price of handing over so silver coins as a bribe, he would end up receiving a thorough pounding from the Prince of the Latia Republic.
* * *
Volga quickened his pace. Sorting and integrating the rcenaries had taken no small amount of ti, and he ended up being late for the appointnt.
As expected, they were already gathered and seated around the tent.
Master Belmar Robertis sat at the center, and around him were the Mountain Rabbits' key figures. Captain Royce was unable to attend, apologizing as he was called away to a eting, but Vice-captain Marik and Gregor were there, along with Zahira, Basim, and Hadiya. They weren't rely listening—they were in active conversation.
"To summarize, even though Calix fell short of a '3.7' output, he didn't fall behind the Legion Commander in terms of speed. Would it be around '3.5'?"
"That's roughly where it seed to be. But other Legion Commanders could be faster. That's specific to Midra's case."
While Hadiya and Calix exchanged opinions, Volga wedged himself in beside his master and sat down. It seed, fortunately, that it was not yet over.
Vice-captain Marik then added his thoughts.
"Perhaps we could make that benchmark a bit more precise. I also felt that the speed wasn't quite as fast as I'd expected, but the problem was that the enemy dominated the entire space. If we co face to face with a similar opponent in the future—"
Volga curled his lips in contentnt. This was sothing that had co about at Gregor's insistence—'why are you only teaching the cook?'—and under Master Belmar's permission.
'I'd love it if we could keep doing this going forward.'
Knowing that the ti to march out was almost upon them made it all the more bittersweet. The Master's teachings were a privilege in and of themselves, and the exchange of each other's perspectives in the process had doubled the reward.
It had gone beyond simple swordsmanship, touching on how to face the evil beings, each person's own war experiences, and more.
At that very mont, Master Belmar's lips parted.
"That is well said. It moved in units of space. Its strength was rooted in dark energy rather than the physical body. We must be careful—and careful once more."
At that, Gregor's hand shot up at once.
"Then would it be difficult even for a top-rank swordsman to deal with one? That's troubling. I'll have you know I briefly went to visit my late father on this last outing. Belmar, would it take soone at your level to kill one?"
"For an average top-rank swordsman, it would be difficult. A Master…… I cannot say. I have never co face to face with one of those Legion Commanders, and the variables are far too wide."
He had twisted the na around carelessly, yet without so much as a single furrow of the brow, a calm answer ca back. At that, Volga also quietly slipped in a question.
"But he did it, didn't he? Calix. So if he becos a Master, couldn't he kill one?"
A mont of silence followed.
It was not the sort of thing to be brought up carelessly, yet it had been fired off boldly, representing what was on everyone's mind. Dwarf Basim teased, 'as expected, he may be dim but he does have his uses', in a mocking kind of praise.
Imdiately after, a gentle smile settled at the corners of Belmar's mouth.
"There is certainly a possibility. He carries energy of a different grain, so one could say he holds an unknown hope. It is a fundantally different kind of strength."
"Right? I thought the sa thing!"
"However, Master is not a level one can ascend to so easily. People often speak of the boundary between top-rank and Master as 'facing a wall'. Yet few know just how thick that wall is, or how far it stretches."
Volga looked at Calix's face.
‘Where do they stand among it all?’
Chase after the one furthest ahead, and the answer cos. This ti was no different.
"Once one reaches the Geomhwa, three trials await beyond it. The first is the Clear Mirror. It is the act of gazing upon oneself as though reflected in an unclouded mirror, to find one's path. The second is the Empty Heart—one must sweep away the fog that has settled deep within the mind. The third is Flowing Water. Even when the wind blows, only the surface ripples—the flow itself remains undisturbed."
"Which of those is my friend at?"
"He himself would know the answer…… but one could say, at the very least, he has taken the Clear Mirror within him."
The person in question said not a single word, yet it was his companions who lit up and began pulling out questions one after another.
"What kind of realization is needed to move beyond the Clear Mirror?"
"Well, if you've seen yourself in the mirror, hasn't the fog already lifted?"
Hadiya leaned forward and murmured as if whispering, while Basim cast sidelong glances at Calix and grumbled.
"I knew this would happen! Cook comrade, you'd better stay humble. There's still a long road ahead!"
Gregor grinned and rapped his shield, and finally, Marik laid out more specific figures.
"From what I've heard, it isn't only a matter of realization—the output gap between top-rank and Master is quite substantial as well. I've been told one must reach at least '5.0' to have fastened the first button of Mastery."
"That is true. However, output is nothing more than a number. The body's limitations vanish at a certain point. For those who wield a sword, one must cast aside fear and attachnt, and at tis, hesitation. That cos first."
Though Belmar's counsel was directed at Calix, it etched itself deeply into everyone's mind. Volga felt the sa without exception.
'There was a wider world out there.'
Even if his own talent did not reach the level of his friend who was 'quite, rather, considerably, exceedingly gifted', he had no doubt that following in those footsteps would carry him upward.
"I'm going to catch up. Just watch."
"……Yeah."
The Mountain Rabbits' eyes shone clear and bright. Because output was nothing more than a number, they had to shatter the wall within and rise.
They had learned and felt that obvious, yet essential truth.
That was what mattered.
Bwooo-ooo!
Just then, without warning, the sound of a horn rang out from the distance and the earth trembled faintly. The main forces of Kalahim and Viale had arrived.
The ti to depart for a new battlefield had co.
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