Sword Master of a Fa Chapter 21 : Monster Invasion (3)

Chapter 21: Monster Invasion (3)

The ti the Ragnar Knight Order stayed at Chaplin Castle amounted to barely over an hour.

After leaving the castle, the Ragnar Knight Order kept glancing back at the castle walls, as if regretful.

That was understandable, as even when they had rested for a day in the Ragnar Territory, they had been unable to properly rest due to preparing for the expedition.

They thought that perhaps they could rest just a little longer before moving, but they could not voice their dissatisfaction out loud.

‘That’s because the Grand General is terrifying.’

The incident where one knight had defied Kyle during survival training and been worked to the brink of death was etched firmly into their minds.

Even now, that knight had fallen to the role of a porter, pulling a cart loaded with food all by himself.

Since all the horses had been left behind at Chaplin Castle, he looked even more exhausted.

Several knights cast pitiful glances at the cart following behind them.

On top of the cart, Acacia was urging the knights onward, eyes blazing.

“Hurry up! If you move sluggishly, I’ll swap your positions with those guys!”

At Acacia’s words, the knights flinched and picked up their pace, but he did not stop there.

“You’re still not pulling faster? It’ll be good for your own sake to keep the distance from the knights from widening.”

This ti, the targets were the two knights pulling the cart.

The knight who had directly shown dissatisfaction toward Kyle, and the knight who had been beaten after defying Acacia.

In accordance with Kyle’s principle that one must be worked as much as one has erred, Acacia was driving them to their limits.

However, it was difficult to keep up with knights running quickly while dragging food sufficient for a hundred n to last a week.

Seeing them fall farther and farther behind, Deni rolled up his sleeves.

“I’ll pull it together with them, Instructor.”

Deni did not want the march to be delayed due to transporting food, so he grabbed the handle of the cart.

anwhile, Zero, who had been moving alongside Deni, went to the back of the cart.

“I’ll push from behind.”

Seeing that, Acacia clicked his tongue and scolded the two knights.

“Tsk tsk, such feeble things. The road’s decent enough, yet you can’t even properly pull a single cart…….”

Though it was a well-maintained road, every path leading through the mountain range was still a mountain path.

As they struggled to pull the cart uphill, gloom settled in the eyes of the knights.

It was nothing but pathetic that they, who were mid-ranked knights, had fallen to being cart pullers.

Yet, at the sight of Deni and Zero silently helping them, the knights could not voice any complaints.

After two hours of forced marching like that, the Ragnar Knight Order arrived at the target location.

While the knights prepared for battle, Aron checked the terrain and then approached Acacia.

“Sir Acacia.”

“What?”

“Could you go up to the cliff and check the situation, then return?”

A place where cliffs made of rock existed on both sides.

It was excellent terrain that could make up for nurical inferiority.

Still, a military strategist always had to move while considering variables.

Having received Aron’s request, Acacia nodded.

Though the cliff was quite high, it posed no problem to Acacia.

The knights marveled at the sight of Acacia lightly climbing the cliff, stepping on rocks that jutted out.

“Wow…….”

“Wow, my ass. Hurry up and set up the barrier, and get ready for battle!”

At the knights’ admiration, Akun scolded them and looked up toward the cliff.

To set up a barrier, timber was needed, but it was difficult to find trees along a path flanked by cliffs on both sides.

Before long, Akun, as if resigned, threw off his armor.

“Strategist, I’ll go up the cliff, cut down trees, and drop them.”

“Could you do that for us?”

“It’s not a difficult task.”

Even if he could not climb the cliff as lightly as Acacia, climbing it was still entirely possible.

Akun put on gloves on both hands and firmly secured his sword to his back.

Then he slowly climbed up the cliff.

Unlike Acacia, Akun clung tightly to the cliff, grabbing protruding stones as he climbed, and the knights let out suppressed chuckles at the sight.

Zero glared at those knights.

“Don’t look at the Commander with eyes like that. If you’re so confident, why don’t you try climbing the cliff yourselves?”

Zero approached a knight he had been watching and tapped his chest armor.

“Disarm yourself.”

“……Vice-Commander.”

“You should experience it yourself to know how difficult that is.”

At Zero’s words, the knight looked at the cliff once, then bowed his head deeply.

“I’m sorry.”

“Is that disobedience of orders?”

“No! I’ll disarm imdiately!”

In the end, the knight shouted loudly and hurriedly removed his armor.

Taking his eyes off the knight, Zero looked at Deni.

“Deni, let’s go up as well.”

“Vice-Commander, you should stay here. Don’t you need to command the knights?”

Even without being told, Deni was already throwing off his armor and fixing his sword to his back.

Doing it with two people would be faster than leaving Akun to do it alone.

Zero accepted Deni’s opinion and ordered the knights who had mocked Akun to climb the cliff.

Left with no choice, the disard knights began clinging to the cliff one by one.

Seeing that, Deni earnestly cautioned Zero.

“Then I’ll be off. Please keep an eye out to make sure no one falls from the cliff.”

Soon, Deni approached the opposite cliff from the one Akun was climbing.

As Aron watched Deni rapidly climbing as soon as he clung to the cliff, he nodded to himself.

Then he recalled sothing Deni’s older brother, Eric, had once said.

— The Light Family is located in a rocky mountain region full of cliffs. That’s why people of the Light Territory sotis take cliff climbing as a hobby.

Perhaps because of Eric’s words, Aron did not think at all that Deni would fall.

Rather, Deni, who had started later than Akun, succeeded in climbing the cliff first.

Holding his sword, Deni began indiscriminately cutting down trees.

Kooong!

At the sound of a massive tree falling, the knights fixed their gaze on the top of the cliff.

When the sound of trees falling ca from the opposite side as well, Zero sighed as he looked at a knight who had stopped without even reaching the middle of the cliff.

“Haa…… if you’re just going to hang there like that, co down!”

At Zero’s shout, the knight who was precariously clinging to the cliff tried to carefully co down.

But without properly checking below, he stepped down and slipped imdiately.

“Uaaah!”

At that mont, Zero moved quickly and caught the falling knight.

The knight, his face pale as a sheet, looked up at Zero.

“Th, thank you.”

“They only realize whether sothing’s difficult or not after trying it themselves.”

Zero tossed the knight onto the ground and clicked his tongue.

In the anti, a tree fell from the top of the cliff where Akun was.

The knights tried to approach the tree, and Zero raised his hand and said quietly,

“Stand by.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than trees ca tumbling down again from above.

Soon, Deni poked his head out from the top of the cliff and shouted.

“Vice-Commander, we’re done here for this round! We’ll go cut more trees now! I’ll let you know before dropping them, so please suspend the work briefly at that ti!”

“Understood!”

Zero responded to Deni’s shout just as loudly, then turned his head.

Ten massive trees lay fallen before the knights.

“Move the trees.”

Only then did the knights begin to carefully move the trees that had fallen from the cliff.

Wrapping Aura around his sword, Zero cut the trees into appropriate sizes.

While they were making a barrier with the cut logs, Acacia dropped down from the top of the cliff.

Landing lightly, he imdiately approached Aron and revealed his doubts with a curt expression.

“Aron, is this really the right call?”

“Using unfavorable terrain to our advantage. Isn’t that the reason a military strategist exists?”

“If monsters co pouring down from the top of the cliff, we could be wiped out without even reacting. Doesn’t it feel like your instincts are seriously dulled?”

Just as he said, if monsters descended from above the cliff, no matter how many barriers they built along the path, it would be useless.

Even so, Aron did not change his expression and shook his head.

“I’ll handle it.”

“How exactly are you going to handle it?”

“What are you worried about? They may look clumsy right now, but those are knights who live in the harsh and dangerous North.”

“So you’re saying training and real combat might be different?”

“Not might be. They are different.”

“Hmmm…….”

He could not understand what kind of expectations Aron had for people who could not even climb a single cliff.

As Acacia tilted his head with a hand on his chin, Aron gave a faint smile.

Just then, soone suddenly dropped straight down from the cliff.

After confirming who it was, Aron showed a startled expression.

“……Commander?”

It was none other than Seros, who had gone to scout inside the mountain range.

“What happened? Why are you back so quickly…….”

“I’ll report to my lord first.”

Brushing off Aron’s question, Seros walked toward Kyle with a hardened expression.

Hearing the increasingly loud footsteps, Kyle turned around, spotted Seros, and asked quietly,

“What brings you back so quickly?”

“My lord, it seems the monsters were forcibly driven out of the mountain range.”

“Explain.”

Seros explained the appearance of the orcs he had seen at the entrance, as well as the orc who wielded a blade.

After hearing the entire explanation, Kyle furrowed his brow.

“……You said you heard it being referred to as a ‘Lord’?”

“Yes, I heard it clearly. That Orc called a Lord may be on par with , or perhaps slightly stronger.”

“Are you saying that if you fought properly, it might be difficult to reach a decisive conclusion?”

“I’m not confident I could win for sure.”

“You’ve brought important information, and that is enough. If we have to face that Orc called a Lord, I’ll step in, so don’t worry.”

“I’m sorry, my lord.”

“No. You did well. Prepare to face the monsters.”

Kyle patted the shoulder of Seros, who bowed his head as if ashad, then folded his arms and closed his eyes.

anwhile, Aron approached Seros to hear the full story.

“Commander, what exactly happened?”

“Aron, this might grow larger in scale than we expected.”

“……I’ll need a detailed explanation.”

At Aron’s request, Seros explained in detail what he had experienced at the mountain range entrance.

The more he listened, the more Aron’s expression gradually hardened.

“Aron, do you have so kind of idea?”

“While staying at the Lord’s Castle, I reviewed books that recorded history. Among them, sothing from a book recorded by the first Head of the Ragnar Family ca to mind.”

“Can you tell ?”

At Seros’s words, Aron revealed exactly what he knew.

“Originally, the continent had many races besides humans. That Orc you saw, the one called a Lord, is very likely an Orc Lord.”

“……Orc?”

“The Orc tribe was recorded as a race with intelligence similar to humans, along with great martial strength. And the existence akin to their king is precisely the Orc Lord.”

“Then the Orc called a Lord that I encountered…….”

“Seems to be one of the seven lords that rule the Monster Mountain Range.”

“…….”

“I’ve read many historical records left by various nations, but this is the first ti I’ve seen a place that recorded monsters as ticulously as the Ragnar Family.”

Kooong!

As Aron continued explaining about the Orc Lord, Seros suddenly felt a ground-shaking vibration and snapped his head around.

“It looks like the monsters have reached right in front of us.”

“We should hurry and prepare.”

“Where should I take responsibility?”

“May I ask you to handle the left side, Commander? Sir Acacia will take charge of the right.”

At Aron’s words, Seros nodded and leaped toward the left cliff.

‘Orc Lord or whatever, dealing with the monsters rushing here cos first.’