325 - The Fall of the Empire 5
TL/Editor: raei
Schedule: 5/week
Illustrations: Posted in discord
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Adventurers are professionals who explore unknown territories, rcenaries are contractors who do dirty work for money, and knights are specialists in killing, trained with swords from a young age.
You can see it just by looking at the knight squires who gaze at with sparkling eyes. In a normal modern society, they would be in the middle of compulsory education and not yet in their teenage years. Yet, they are holding swords and learning to cut down humans and humanoid monsters.
Just like modern people who go through 12 years of compulsory education from elentary to high school, these children live their entire lives wielding swords until they die of old age. So, the scene unfolding before our eyes was not surprising.
“Glory to the Goddess, blessings to the royal family!”
“““Severe judgnt to the disloyal!!!”””
With their receipt-long list of buffs, the knights advanced in groups of five into the still-chaotic harpy city.
As the royal knights, they were all at a high level, capable of using mana to wield aura. Without any flashy decorations or beautiful appearances, these knights were clad in plain, intimidating steel armor as they scattered into the crumbling city.
What followed was a predictable massacre.
Since they trained in swordsmanship, they required the help of soldiers or adventurers when facing giant monsters. But when the opponents were humanoid, the story changed. Whether the harpies had wings or not, even if they flew, they would still be cut by a sword and could not block such attacks with re throwing spears.
“They’ll have to co down eventually!”
“Maintain formation! Strike right after the throw!”
“Don’t worry about the commanders. We need to kill them all anyway, so start with the minions!”
They operated completely differently from my brute-force style. Exploiting the tiny openings unique to flying monsters, they kicked off the debris of fallen buildings to leap up, and mana stone fragnts from the once-harpy fell from the sky.
Yet, the knights chanically began hunting the harpies, showing no interest in such matters. They dodged the deadly throwing spears that could pierce a senior adventurer in one shot, and deftly deflected cuffs or gas grenades with their sword blades, sending them flying away.
The high-grade mana stones from the 46th floor, which might fetch gold coins if sold, were kicked around with the debris.
“Wow, how many gold coins would those fetch if we sold them all?”
-In the middle of a group battle, and all you think about is gold.
-But picking up just five of those would be worth my month’s salary, lol.
-Forget a month’s salary, if you're a low-tier tower climber, you could live off that for a year.
-If you’re in the life skills departnt, you could collect those and set up a food stall or a small workshop.
-I thought knights were just quest NPCs, but damn.
As Han Se-ah lanted over the mana stones while watching the brutal combat, soone else was gazing at the knights’ battle in awe.
“As expected, knights bearing the royal na...!”
It was Katie, who had reverted to her childlike admiration mode in the face of the grand battle.
Of course, I was impressed too.
I could block throwing spears with my body and barely deflect the relatively slow gas grenades. In contrast, these knights deftly parried everything from cuffs to nets with a thin sword. It was a technique beyond my understanding, like catching an iron net designed to entangle on impact with a sword.
Moreover, Katie wasn’t just impressed by the precise swordsmanship.
“They're incredibly efficient at dealing with them.”
“Right? You see it, don’t you, Roland!?”
The efficiency of the combat, or rather the hunt, was insane.
Han Se-ah, who had been listening to our conversation, muttered and raised the cara drone higher to capture an aerial view of the knight order's battle. This allowed the viewers to see the city from above, much like we did.
[Knight Sharpener Thief Han Se-ah donated 10,000 won!]
Are they erasers? They’re just erasing harpies wherever they go.
What they saw was the knights systematically wiping the harpies from the city.
Moving organically in teams of five without radios or telepathy, they advanced from the entrance of the city near the cave inward, ensuring no harpies were left behind.
Like herding dogs, they efficiently cut down soldier harpies and civilian harpies alike, clearing the city. In a little while, the remaining harpies would be herded to the central temple and exterminated.
“Oh, they’re flying away. Are they trying to escape to another city?”
“A soldier abandoning their city to looters, how pitiful….”
Sensing the hopeless situation, a few elite harpies gave up the fight and flew away. Clearly, they were leaders, dropping their spears and cuffs and soaring into the sky.
But where did they plan to go?
“…Grace, can you chase them?”
“Chase them? Why?”
Unfortunately, we couldn’t pursue the elite harpies who had fled the city. They escaped over the cliff and ascended so high in their fear that they were barely visible. They flew so high that not even Han Se-ah’s cara could capture them.
Except for a few commander-level harpies who literally fled with their tails between their legs, the city was thoroughly cleaned.
“Can’t we go and pick those up?”
“The squires will co to collect them soon. If we’re caught, it won’t end with just a scolding.”
“Oh… really?”
We had stood in front of the cave for quite a while to watch everything, but it seed worth it. It wasn’t about so grand realization, but seeing Katie and Han Se-ah looking very satisfied.
While I might be better at taking down a single large target, the kingdom’s knight order had unparalleled skill in clearing wide areas. They didn’t have flashy, glowing skills, but their coordinated advance was like a fantasy movie scene, beloved not for CGI but for the magnificence of the charge.
-That was great to watch, but when are you going to deal with that thing on your shoulder, teacher?
-You got so imrsed you forgot your job, you should go sell that thing.
-For real, if the freshness drops, you might not get a good price.
-Treating people like log traders, geez.
-So, what's the plan? If you sell it, won’t it end up as material for experints?
“This is all for funding the fight against the Demon King. If soone’s buying, I’m selling. It’s not like I’m forcing it on them. And so people seem overly attached to the monster. I’ll rember those usernas and check later if they’re spies for the Demon King’s army.”
Ignoring Han Se-ah, who was still streaming, Katie was excited, chattering away to Grace and Irene like a child the day before a field trip. Grace and Irene smiled warmly at her.
Watching them fondly, I tightened my grip on the slender neck of the harpy inside the sack, securing it between my arm and side.
This elite harpy, more fittingly called a birdbrain than an elite, had the habit of trying to spread her wings before assessing her situation upon waking up. If the sack suddenly swelled and wriggled, it ant she had regained consciousness.
“She’s awake again?”
“Probably. The sack is swelling, so I guess the ropes have snapped. She’s trying to spread her wings.”
“In that case, I think we’ve seen everything we need to. Should we head down?”
The descent was uneventful. Between the harpy kingdom on the 43rd floor and the provincial city of the harpy empire on the 46th floor, the middle boss on the 45th floor acted as a buffer zone.
If we had dug into the ground in the boss’s territory, swarms of insect-like monsters might have erupted, but our party had never faced financial issues, so we had no reason to farm gold through tedious monster hunting.
Moreover, the path had already been cleared by Rebecca’s rcenary corps, filled with loot, then by the kingdom’s second knight order, which had thoroughly cleaned the city, and finally by the squires who collected mana stones and assisted the knights.
As a result, the descent was peaceful, with the only monster being the harpy slung over my shoulder.
“So, what will the knights do next?”
“What do you an?”
“Their goal is to subdue the harpy empress on the 50th floor, not the 46th floor. Do you think they’ll keep moving their base up floor by floor?”
Chatting along the narrow path, we discussed our thoughts as Grace’s senses detected nothing.
Late at night, we returned to the 43rd floor and were greeted by Ellis, looking deathly pale.
What happened now?
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