Chapter 125: Chapter 125

Early in the evening, the city residents, who had been anxiously waiting for a long time, cheered as the Lord Protector and the knights returned carrying the head of the basilisk.

The elderly deputy in particular was so overjoyed that he nearly shed tears.

It was not simply because the mighty monster threatening the city had been eliminated, but because that high and mighty noble had returned unharmed.

If Shan had died or suffered severe injuries, how would the Queen view the people of this city, and him as the deputy?

At the very least, it was certain that his path to advancement would be blocked.

“Is that the real head of a basilisk?”

“It has no eyes.”

“Fool, if its eyes were attached properly, we all would have turned to stone! The knights slashed them out with their swords.”

Of course, this was the talk of those with some degree of political insight, while most were simply genuinely delighted by the news that a dangerous monster had been subjugated.

To the people of Pendia, who had been tormented by monsters past and present, a powerful knight who defeated them was an object of worship.

“Daddy!”

“Yes, I’m back. I’m here!”

“I really thought you were dead, honey…… Please never go outside again.”

“We have to make a living, so how could that be as I wish? I’ll be careful from now on. Truly.”

In addition, the families of those who had been petrified by the basilisk and were merely awaiting the day to be eaten were also overjoyed.

After all, most of those who would venture into the forest outside the city were the breadwinners of their households.

People nearby watched these family reunions with warm eyes.

The mansion in the center of the city, originally the lord’s residence and now used by the deputy.

After returning, washing up, and resting, Shan received a visit from the deputy.

“You have truly worked hard, Lord Protector. Tomorrow, we intend to host a grand festival and banquet, so it would be an honor if you could attend…”

“No, I will rest only today and leave tomorrow. I appreciate the thought, though.”

“Pardon? No, won’t you stay and rest a little longer?”

Shan spoke in a calm tone to the flustered deputy.

“Even now, there are multiple fiefs suffering from monsters. I heard that near the Blade Mountain Range, there are even a few villages that have been completely abandoned.”

“Well, that is true, but……”

Even so, after hunting a monster of this scale, wasn’t it human nature to want to rest for a bit?

To excitedly brag to people about having slain such a beast.

The deputy pondered for a moment whether Shan meant this sincerely or simply wanted to act loyal.

If it were the former, fine, but if it were the latter, failing to persuade him once more might earn unnecessary resentment.

In the end, after offering a couple more times out of courtesy, he only stepped back after hearing the answer that Shan truly did not desire any grand treatment.

The next morning, Shan led the army out of the city and headed north.

Since they had a long way to go and having too much baggage would be inconvenient, he had the basilisk’s head and byproducts sent separately to the capital.

Walking alongside Arwin, Shan asked Tavera, who was looking back with a somewhat disappointed expression.

“Are you disappointed that you couldn’t enjoy the banquet?”

“Pardon? Ah, no, Lord Protector. How could I dare entertain such a thought?”

Tavera denied it with a guilty expression.

According to what Shan had felt while staying with him, Tavera was somewhat lighter and more fond of having fun than Vico.

Put nicely, one could say he was easygoing and flexible.

He probably wanted to rest a bit after working hard this time as well.

Before this, even after going on an expedition to the northeastern Demonic Realm, hadn’t they only rested for a mere ten days in the capital?

Shan did not yell at or scold him as ordinary knights treated squires, accusing him of being lazy or lacking chivalry.

Instead, he smiled and encouraged him.

“Let’s work hard just until this time and take a solid month or two of rest when we return. Other people need to have work to do, too.”

“Understood!”

At Tavera snapping to high spirits even at gentle words, Roden and Lug beside him chuckled.

*

Afterward, in the process of advancing northward, the subjugation force tested various things.

They subjugated trolls with only soldiers (there were two opportunities, failing once and succeeding once) and also tested how effective a joint operation between soldiers and knights was in hunting creatures like manticores or gryphons.

Meanwhile, on one occasion, they encountered an unexpected monster.

It was a horned horse: a unicorn.

“Oh, is that……”

“It really is a unicorn. It’s my first time seeing one.”

“They aren’t common.”

Looking at the unicorn standing far off, Shan and the knights conversed in low voices.

The reason they did not particularly lower their voices was that the beast already knew of their presence anyway.

No matter how dull a creature was, there was no way it could fail to notice the presence of an army of over three hundred men moving.

Roden looked at the beast and spoke with an intrigued face.

“They say that creature is not aggressive at all toward pure people and instead acts friendly… is that true?”

“We could send someone who’s pure to check.”

“What about Sir Lug?”

“Me? I……”

At Roden’s question, Lug coughed awkwardly and turned his head.

Understanding what that meant, Roden giggled.

“That won’t do. I think it’d be a bit difficult for me too, but Vico, Tavera. How about you…”

“I’ll give it a try.”

As Shan stepped forward, everyone’s eyes widened.

Roden stammered for a moment before speaking softly.

“You, uh, well…… still?”

“Of course. That kind of thing should be done after getting married. Didn’t you teach me that before?”

“No, well, I did say that, but.”

The reason he had taught him that was that Shan back then was excessively close to a wild child.

If he had said it was okay to sleep together if they hit it off, and Shan interpreted that arbitrarily and went around assaulting any woman, how could anyone stop him?

“Wait, Roden isn’t married, right? Then you told me to keep it while you yourself…”

At Shan’s questioning, Roden coughed awkwardly just as Lug had done earlier and averted his gaze.

A short while later, under everyone’s gazes full of embarrassment and doubt, Shan rode Arwin toward the unicorn.

The monster, featuring an impressive pure white body and mane along with a silver horn, looked at Arwin and Shan riding atop her, then quietly approached and rubbed its horn, showing affection.

Shan turned sideways and said.

“It really is true.”

“I’ll say……”

Encounters with a non-aggressive monster being a first in his life, Shan looked over the creature from this side and that, observing it.

From what he had heard, warhorses from Mount Horais like Arwin were mixed with such unicorn bloodlines, which might be why their body shapes looked somewhat similar.

Arwin also seemed quite friendly toward the creature.

“Then, now……”

Shan gently stroked the mane of its neck, then changed the Thousand Shapes (which was in the shape of a bracelet) into the shape of a scimitar and struck down.

As the beheaded unicorn collapsed while spurting pure white blood, Arwin looked at Shan with a reproachful expression.

“You only say that because you don’t know how bad of a bastard this guy is.”

This unicorn, which had acted meekly toward Shan until a moment ago, had raided a village just two days prior and gored over sixty residents to death with its horn.

Though a few young children had survived, because the village had been devastated and all the adults had fled, they huddled together in a ruined house, hugging one another until they froze to death.

Considering their grievances, wouldn’t it be fair to say that dying like this left no room for complaints?

By extracting and gathering the unicorn’s horn (which had also been an ingredient for that dreadful aphrodisiac incense before) and its mane hair, Shan concluded his revenge for the villagers.

And the following day, on a mountain trail, the subjugation force rescued a group of refugees threatened by monsters.

They were residents who had lived in a village adjacent to the Blade Mountain Range, wandering after losing their village to an attack by the fire spirit Salamander.

While investigating the refugees’ identities, Roden looked at a blonde man and questioned him sharply.

“You, aren’t you by any chance from Ajun?”

Although there were not a few blondes among Pendians, blond hair so bright as to look white was rare.

On top of that, a tall height, a burly physique, and armor of a quality too fine for a mere villager to use, even if somewhat worn.

While the other people were flustered, the blonde man, hit right on the mark, soon revealed the truth honestly.

“Yes, I am a deserter who broke away after being defeated in the Battle of Mount Aman.”

At the words that he was a deserter from Ajun, the soldiers readjusted their weapons and aimed at him.

The atmosphere grew hostile in an instant.

At this, Shan raised his hand to restrain the soldiers.

“Stop. He is only one man. So, have you settled here now?”

“That is correct. I even gained a wife in the village. Intending to live here for the rest of my life……”

“Please forgive him, my lord! Even if he came here with bad intentions initially, he was a good husband and neighbor in this place……”

The woman who appeared to be his wife hugged the deserter as if protecting him and sobbed, begging for mercy.

At this, Shan exchanged glanced with Roden with an awkward expression, then consoled them.

“Enough, I have no intention to blame you. If one does not commit evil deeds and lives as a subject of Pendia, Her Majesty the Queen will accept anyone.”

“Thank you, thank you so very much……!”

After sharing a bit of food with those who expressed gratitude through tears, they departed on their way.

Afterward, in various places across the northwest, men who suspiciously looked like people from Ajun were frequently spotted.

Some of them had even married three or four women by themselves.

Roden offered an analysis of this phenomenon.

“Before, due to Duke of Morayen’s harsh pillaging and conscription, the men in the northwestern region were literally virtually wiped out. And deserters from Ajun scattered into that region…… The villagers needed sturdy men to provide labor and military force, and the Ajun deserters, unable to return home, needed families and a place to settle. Their mutual needs matched perfectly.”

This state of affairs was not conveyed to the central government in the capital.

From the perspective of the villagers, it was natural since they would not want to risk having the state arrest the deserters who had become their new family members.

After discussion, they decided not to bother arresting the deserters who had settled down in this manner.

Unless they caused some trouble, adding healthy men capable of traveling to a distant nation for war was something to be welcomed.

In the first place, at the point of deserting, matters of faith were likely half-abandoned anyway.

Heading straight up north and passing Jerkan City, the subjugation force swept along the Blade Mountain Range as they moved southwest.

One after another, villages devastated by Salamanders, swarms of giant spiders, werewolves, and the like (which they had heard about from the refugees encountered earlier) appeared.

Instead of stepping forward to wipe out all these enemies himself, Shan had his subordinates subjugate them, stepping in to help whenever they reached their limits.

Thanks to Lug also performing a similar role in places beyond Shan’s reach, the army of over three hundred men did not suffer a single death while fighting fiercely with monsters for several weeks.

Their exploits were naturally passed down like a legend among the residents of the northwest.

As the invincible army led by the Lord Protector defeated all the monsters crawling out from the Blade Mountain Range, those who regained their homelands praised their strength and benevolence.

Moreover, a considerable number of them even considered converting to another faith with this as an impetus.

“Converting to the New Faith?”

“Yeah. The Lord Protector is an Altoan, but the Old Faith calls Altoans demons.”

Ordinary people formed their worldview through religion and used it as a yardstick to evaluate people.

However, when people sometimes felt the contradiction between the religion they had believed in and reality through a specific experience, they rationalized it or sought better alternatives.

The reality that New Faith believers were being appointed to important posts over Old Faith believers under Queen Cheryn’s rule also added fuel to this phenomenon.

*

The subjugation force, writing legends across the northwestern region of Pendia in that manner, finally halted upon reaching East Solod Castle, on the border between Pendia and Libert.

For the time being, it was fair to consider that clearing out the monsters pouring from the Blade Mountain Range was virtually finished with this.

“Let’s rest here today. Since you have worked hard without rest all this time, shall we rest for about three days? Solod Castle has a market as well.”

At Shan’s words, the soldiers erupted into cheers.

This was because, even for well-trained elites, a schedule of marching and clashing with monsters constantly for several weeks was not easy.

Having raised his subordinates’ morale in that manner, Shan looked up at the high ramparts of Solod Castle and spoke to Roden.

“It’s been quite a while since I last saw this place too.”

“I’ll say. Has it been five years?”

Except for when they had just crossed from Libert into Pendia, they had had no reason to come here.

Later, even while touring the west, they had been unable to stop by Solod Castle because Gizel III had died.

A short while later, the soldiers of Solod Castle welcomed Shan’s subjugation force, which was said to be creating a sensation in northwestern Pendia recently.

“Oh, it is truly good to see you after so long, Lord Protector! Baron Boldran and Baron Satru have come as well! I heard you have suffered much trouble!”

“Good to see you, Sir Kibain. No, should I call you Castle Lord of Solod?”

“Haha, that is how it turned out!”

Kibain, the Castle Lord of Solod, was a knight who had previously been active in Palles alongside Shan.

After capturing the west, Cheryn appointed him as the Castle Lord of Solod, having him guard Pendia’s western border.

Since the noble who had previously inherited the position of Solod’s castle lord was the one who permitted Duke of Morayen and the army of Ajun to enter under Conrad’s orders, it was a natural measure.

Entering the interior of the castle, Shan exchanged greetings with the castle lord and then checked the castle’s defensive posture first before anything else.

“The ramparts of this Solod Castle reach a height of a full twenty meters. As for the gates, they are made of ironwood as hard as iron and reinforced with Mana Stones, so even if siege weapons ram into them, not a scratch will be left!”

The castle lord spoke in an excited tone as he followed Shan around.

Rather than trying to flatter him or hide poor administration, it was a sign of being genuinely anxious to brag about the terrifying nature of this castle.

Come to think of it, was this man someone who had been very interested in fortification or architecture back in his days as a knight?

It seemed Cheryn had pondered well in her own way and chosen the right person for the right place.

Whether because Kibain’s interest was reflected in it, the castle’s defensive posture left nothing to be criticized.

The Mana Stones embedded in the gates and ramparts were intact without having been swapped out, and the soldiers guarding atop the walls were also well armed and thoroughly trained, maintaining a strict guard.

The extra weapons in the warehouse were also well maintained.

At this level, even if thousands of soldiers from Libert came swarming in, they would not be able to conquer it in a short time.

Even considering that they had been notified in advance of Shan’s visit, this was a very excellent standard.

After all, one deputy who had been driven out previously was caught after replacing the gate’s Mana Stones with cheap ones and selling them off.

“Splendid, Castle Lord. I will inform Her Majesty the Queen of how faithfully you are fulfilling your duty.”

At Shan’s words, Kibain said it was an honor and chuckled softly.

Afterward, Shan declared that they would rest at Solod Castle for a few days, as promised.

The soldiers scattered to taverns in all directions to relieve the fatigue of their long journey.

Meanwhile, through Kibain, Shan summoned peddlers traveling back and forth between Libert and Pendia to hear news of the Libert side.

The peddlers were either delighted or fearful about being able to meet and talk with the famous Altoan Lord Protector.

The latter were mostly from the Old Faith believers, but since merchants as a class were usually the most open-minded and dealt with New Faith believers as well, they did not show overt hostility.

“I heard that the war between Duke of Morayen and Count Balik is currently at a stalemate. Both have suffered severe depletion of troops and supplies, so they are said to be holed up in the fiefs they rule. I suppose they will likely only fight again after the spring harvest ends……”

“Which side is at a greater disadvantage?”

“How could a merchant like me know for certain, but it seems the one at a disadvantage is likely the Duke. While he was away in Pendia, his fief became desolate and the people departed.”

It was not easy by any means for someone who had lost once in a war between nobles to make a comeback.

This was because the moment one lost, betrayers would emerge in rapid succession from within, and knowing they would not be accepted back once they betrayed, they would not return.

Still, at the fact that a figure he had harbored a reasonable amount of goodwill toward was struggling, Shan nodded with mixed feelings.

Whether these merchants’ words were true or false became known before long.

On the exact third day, just as they were about to leave to tour the western region after completing their rest, an envoy from Duke of Morayen arrived at Solod Castle.