Chapter 20: Chapter 20
“Absolutely not!”
Naturally, Callion practically threw a fit at the mention of taking Roden along to set off for the Demonic Realm.
Even the mask he always wore to act like a grand figure in front of his subordinates completely collapsed.
But then, was there ever a parent who could defeat their own child?
What was more, since Roden was a son who had already gone to the extreme measure of running away from home once to enforce his will, Callion had no choice but to yield this time as well.
After several fierce arguments back and forth, Callion finally muttered sulkily, “Do as you wish,” and shut himself away.
Then, while Roden was busily making preparations for their departure, Callion called Shan over in secret and quietly tipped him off.
“Please take good care of Roden. As you know, even though he’s built big, he’s quite timid at heart.”
Though Callion might well have resented Shan for instilling false hope in his son, he showed no sign of such feelings at all.
That was because he, too, knew that Roden had still not completely given up his desire to succeed as a warrior.
Shan reassured Callion repeatedly, saying he would always prioritize Roden’s safety above all else.
Meanwhile, like a splendid squire, Roden swiftly and thoroughly completed the preparations for their Demonic Realm expedition.
Since it was winter and they would frequently travel through cold, harsh regions, he packed plenty of thick, sturdy cloth clothes instead of thin, soft luxury garments; he separately organized their money from gold and silver coins to gems that could be used for higher-value transactions and were easy to carry; he prepared provisions focused on high-grade jerky made from well-dried, quality meat; and he even repaired the chain mail that had recently become a bit tight on Shan as he grew larger…
Shan, whose personality was far from meticulous in everything, clicked his tongue as he watched this.
“There’s really so much to pack. I only thought of recklessly running out with a single spear or sword.”
“That’s why you need me, isn’t it?”
Seeing that scene, Callion also admitted that Shan needed someone like Roden by his side.
Although he had steadily instilled the refinement of a knight into Roden all this time, such delicate attention to detail was achieved through a harmony of innate temperament and long-held living habits, so it could not be easily changed.
Near the end of winter, having finally completed all preparations, the two stepped out through the East Gate of the capital city Hasra.
“It feels strange to walk out proudly like this instead of sneaking away in secret. For some reason, it feels like I might not come back alive…”
“You told me earlier not to say such ominous things.”
“I’m just saying that’s how it feels.”
The chilly winter sun shone upon the path of the two young men who departed harboring their dreams.
*
The party’s first destination was Shedil, a large city in eastern Pendia.
As a trading city connecting the capital Hasra with small fiefs adjacent to the Demonic Realm, it was like a base of operations for explorers diving into the Demonic Realm.
It was the perfect place to gather information about the Demonic Realm or recruit companions.
“Would we need more companions?”
“Absolutely. Two rookies recklessly barging into the Demonic Realm is suicide.”
Roden rambled on to Shan about the hardships of Demonic Realm exploration that he had looked into.
From all kinds of bizarre magical beasts that were hard to drive away by physical means, to distorted natural phenomena and dangerous ruins from the ancient Altoan era.
It was impossible for a single mighty warrior and a young man skilled in various petty tricks to navigate through all of that.
“We need at least a guide familiar with the geography of the Demonic Realm, a mage or scholar who can read the ancient language of the Altoan Empire, and a priest skilled in curse-breaking and healing.”
“Then that’s at least five people.”
“Actually, we need more combatants on top of that. No matter how strong you are, you can’t be a swordsman, a lancer, and an archer all at the same time by yourself. But if there are too many people, there are issues with distributing spoils or supplies… It’s best to hire people who can fight while performing their respective roles.”
Naturally, such people were precious resources even around the Demonic Realm, so they would demand enormous hiring fees.
At the headache-inducing story, Shan groaned.
“I’ll leave picking and managing people entirely to you.”
“I should try to recruit the best guys possible. But to do that, you might have to show off your skills a bit.”
“Well, that’s easy enough.”
Fortunately, thanks to the thorough plan Roden had drawn up, there were no major difficulties during their journey.
Occasionally, they encountered situations where lodging was refused simply because Shan was an Altoan, but conversely, they were treated with lavish hospitality after subjugating a pack of ghouls roaming nearby, or spent a night meeting villagers in a hidden Altoan village.
However, what they clearly felt was that as they got closer to the Demonic Realm, the appearance of magical beasts became more frequent.
Ordinary animals were hard to find for the most part, and the peddlers they occasionally ran into always gathered in groups of dozens and hired thoroughly armed mercenaries.
Should one say it was like dabbing human territory dot by dot across a land full of magical beasts and connecting them with lines?
On the exact tenth day of traveling while hopping across villages and cities like stepping stones,
The two were able to arrive in Shedil City, the largest city in eastern Pendia.
“It’s not as big as Hasra, but it’s pretty large.”
“Look at you acting like you’ve been civilized by the capital. If you had seen this place first, you would’ve marvelled at how huge it is.”
At Roden’s words, Shan smiled embarrassedly for no reason.
As he said, Shedil City was a metropolis that the past Shan would have gawked at with widened eyes like a country bumpkin.
Because magical beasts infested the region so heavily, farmland was likely scarce, but perhaps they were able to maintain such a large population by selling byproducts of magical beasts to import vast quantities of grain.
Perhaps because it was close to the Demonic Realm, the fortress walls were taller and larger, and surprisingly, Mana Stones were embedded and magic circles were drawn not only on the gate but all over the walls, revealing that magic had been cast upon them.
“Won’t someone pry those out at night?”
“Surely they’re set up so you can’t just pry them out.”
Entering the city while exchanging small talk, the two first found an inn, unpacked their luggage, and flopped onto their beds.
After lying down to rest for a full day to wash away their travel fatigue, as soon as day broke, they left the inn and headed straight for the Explorers’ Guild, a famous attraction of Shedil City.
“An Explorers’ Guild… it only exists here, right?”
“That’s right. Because its nature is somewhat different from mercenaries. From what I’ve heard, they evaluate and purchase items obtained from the Demonic Realm, arrange meetings for those who want to explore it, and even manage achievements.”
Since a gathering of armed warriors was always an element of danger to rulers, such a special guild would never be allowed except in places like cities adjacent to the Demonic Realm.
As such, the leadership of the Explorers’ Guild consisted of administrative officials directly dispatched by the Lord of Shedil, making it close to a public institution in nature.
Walking down the street while conversing, Shan truly realized the fact that far more Altoans lived in the east than in the west.
Compared to most Altoans living in the capital of Pendia who belonged to the poor class, there were many more here who were neatly dressed.
On top of that, there were several who looked like mercenaries like Kob whom he had seen before, and most surprisingly of all, even guards existed.
Looking at a guard with a horn sticking out from one side of his helmet, Shan opened his eyes wide.
“Wow, it’s really amazing that there are Altoan guards… There was nothing like that even in the capital.”
“I heard the lord here has no reluctance to employ Altoans. He’s one of the candidates worth asking for knighthood later.”
Count of Shedil, the master of this city, was well known both as a noble and an outstanding knight.
Though he had grown quite old now, didn’t he perform eccentric feats in his youth such as engaging in contests of strength with magical beasts and pulling out their horns?
“Of course, considering Shedil’s location, we’d have to give up on advancing into the central region, but that’s not something to think about right now anyway, so let’s just keep him as a candidate.”
Asking for directions as they found and entered the Explorers’ Guild of Shedil City, the two first felt that it was noisy and chaotic.
People in all kinds of attire were shouting at the top of their lungs, making it hard to tell who was a customer and who was a staff member of the guild.
Only after looking around for a long time like country bumpkins were the two able to find a guild employee.
“Unfamiliar faces. What brings you here?”
A middle-aged man with a prominent scar on one side of his face asked while picking his nose with his pinky finger.
At this, Roden returned to his ‘knight mode’ after a long time and brought up their business in a solemn tone.
As there were many heavily armed individuals in eastern Pendia, few people would abruptly mistake him for a knight just by looking at his attire, but a warrior with a dignified appearance was always respected anyway.
“We came to find companions to explore the Demonic Realm.”
“Two greenhorns from wealthy families? With such conditions, it’ll be hard to match you with good companions. How about you just go back home?”
At the word ‘greenhorns’, not only Roden but also Shan flinched and looked at the man who appeared to be a guild staff member.
That was because there were hardly any people who could accurately deduce Roden’s age upon seeing his muscular, massive frame and thick beard.
“What are you staring at? Even if your outer appearance looks plausible, your skin is far too smooth, so it’s completely obvious. Anyway, do you have any specialties? Just looking at you, it seems this one over here only knows how to fight. Is that kid over there a squire or something?”
“I can pull my own weight well enough… and here, my friend is an incredible expert. Even a knight wouldn’t be a match for him.”
At Roden’s words, the guild staff member looked at Shan with an unbelievable expression.
Though he looked even smaller because the guy right next to him was so tall, his height was barely over 160 cm, and his exposed body, while well-trained, was somewhat lean…
“That brat? Do you look down on knights?”
“I never looked down on them. I, too, am someone who once trained to become a knight.”
“Don’t tell me he’s a mage?”
“No.”
Standing to the side, Shan quietly watched the nerve war between Roden and the guild staff member.
After exchanging glanced for a few seconds, the one who spoke first was the guild staff member.
“Well, fine. I’ll record it like that for now. It’s not like we verify the strength of explorers. A large, bluffing greenhorn and a self-proclaimed brat stronger than a knight…”
“For your information, this friend is an Altoan. If possible, I’d like someone who has no aversion to Altoans. They don’t need to be a New Faith believer.”
“You really pull out all the stops! What type of companions do you want?”
“A guide skilled in the geography of the Demonic Realm, a mage or scholar capable of appraising Altoan relics, and a priest who knows how to protect themselves.”
“Crazy talk! Such talented individuals wouldn’t even be one in a hundred Demonic Realm explorers!”
“A warrior stronger than a knight would be just as rare.”
As the guild staff member wore a pathetic expression as if asking what kind of idiot would believe such nonsense, Roden grinned softly and immediately climbed onto a beer barrel placed nearby.
“Attention, everyone!”
His voice was so loud that a moment of silence even settled over the noisy hall of the Explorers’ Guild.
Several people who appeared to be explorers nearby covered their ears and glared over here, but Roden paid them no mind and continued what he had to say.
“Here, the boy beside me and I are recruiting companions to explore the Demonic Realm! My companion is an invincible warrior so powerful that even knights wouldn’t dare to oppose him!”
“Cut the bullshit and get lost, you idiot!”
“You loud-mouthed pig!”
“Shut up! My ears almost ruptured!”
“Get down from my barrel right now!”
As expected of people who did rough work, crude curses poured out in an instant, but Roden paid them no mind, rummaged through his pouch, pulled out a bag of gold coins, and shook it.
At the clinking sound and heavy weight, those who had been hurling curses instantly fell silent.
“To prove this, I will stake one hundred gold coins! We will hold one-on-one sparring matches with wooden swords in the plaza out front, and if anyone succeeds in landing even a single blow on this boy here, all this money belongs to that person!”
“Ooh!”
“I’ll do it!”
“I’ll beat him black and blue!”
The explorers who had been hurling curses just a moment ago glistened their eyes with interest and greed.
Though he was wearing chain mail and carrying a sword in his own way, no matter how one looked at him, wasn’t he a boy smaller than an ordinary man?
It wasn’t even that they had to fight and win; just taking hits and landing a single blow back would yield one hundred gold coins?
At this rate, whoever grabbed it first was the owner!
While even those who weren’t particularly confident in sword fighting cheered at the intriguing situation, someone relatively rational probed about the conditions.
“Hold on, what if we fight and lose?”
“If you lose, you just lose! Fighting a genius swordsman stronger than a knight and losing is only natural! Just keep in mind that getting your head cracked or a bone or two broken by a wooden sword is your own responsibility!”
To explorers who risked their lives fighting magical beasts and combing through the Demonic Realm, that was literally equivalent to saying there were no conditions at all.
As everyone shouted that they would step up, the guild staff member grimaced.
“Dammit, it’s filthy loud! What on earth are you thinking, causing such a commotion…”
“Whatever I do outside is my own business, isn’t it?”
“Well, that’s not wrong.”
Letting out a groan, the guild staff member soon shook his head back and forth as if he didn’t care anymore.
*
The plaza near the Explorers’ Guild, which was usually relatively quiet.
As armed people swarmed in all at once, city guards who detected the disturbance naturally came to enforce order.
Roden handed them a few silver coins as a bribe and pleaded that this was far from a sword fight, but merely light sparring using wooden swords.
Hearing the details, a few high-ranking guards wore interested expressions and asked.
“Sounds interesting. Can we try participating too?”
“Huh? Well, there’s no reason you can’t…”
Since a few guards ended up participating just like that, there was no longer anyone to stop them.
As the explorers who flooded out from the guild gathered in a circle to form a battleground, Shan and Roden conversed quietly inside.
“You actually went through with this.”
“Well, because you said you were confident.”
“It’s fine if I accidentally get hit once, right?”
“Hey.”
“Don’t worry. In a one-on-one, I wouldn’t get hit even if Feonil came.”
When the name of that Black Spear was mentioned, Roden also chuckled and slapped Shan on the back.
Meanwhile, the first challenger stepped forward from among the explorers and guards who had been bickering for a while.
“Hmm, do we fight after saying ‘Ready… start!’?”
The man murmuring like that was a giant even taller than Roden, so much so that the wooden sword he held looked small.
A physique that could be estimated at least 2 meters tall, or perhaps even more.
Judging by the whispering voices around, he seemed to be quite a celebrity in this vicinity.
Indeed, among the guards were a few retired explorers, and if they stepped back while showing respect, he had to be a figure possessing that much renown.
“If both think it’s started, then it’s started…”
Even before the answer was fully finished, the man launched a surprise attack by swinging his wooden sword with a whoosh toward Shan’s head.
With a force so great that it wouldn’t be strange for one’s head to explode and die on the spot if struck improperly.
A few faint-hearted onlookers gasped or screamed upon seeing this.
Of course, to Shan, it was merely an attack so slow it seemed like a worm crawling.
No matter how large his physique and immense his strength, a human who didn’t know how to move properly was no different from a toy or a stuffed doll to him.
As Shan slightly tilted his body to the side and lightly raised his wooden sword, a dull thud echoed as the two wooden sticks crossed.
Struck precisely on the chin, the giant fell with his eyes rolling back and his legs giving out beneath him.
“B-Bear Hunter Pakan was taken down in one hit!”
“He was hit by a wooden stick like that?”
“I couldn’t even see that brat swinging his wooden sword.”
The giant’s nickname, ‘Bear Hunter’, was a moniker earned from having hunted not a real bear, but a magical beast called an Owlbear.
This large magical beast with the head of an owl and the body of a bear was a being far more powerful than an ordinary bear, so the collapse of a warrior strong enough to hunt it and use it as his moniker in a single blow was truly worthy of being called a major event.
Only then did the onlookers gathered at the scene realize that Shan was an expert far stronger than they had thought, gulping down their spit in tension.
Frankly, it was only natural; if he were truly an ordinary boy as he appeared, they would never have proposed such a wager in the first place.
“Don’t tell me it wasn’t a bluff…?”
While someone muttered in a trembling voice, one of the guards stepped forward as the second challenger.
He was a middle-aged man around forty years old, a former explorer.
“Pleased to meet you, kid.”
“I’m Shan.”
“Right, Shan. Please go easy on me. At my age, broken bones don’t mend easily.”
Contrary to his whining words, the guard’s skills were quite remarkable.
Perhaps because his original weapon was not a sword, his grip and swinging style were somewhat awkward, but the momentum with which he gauged the distance and swung was quite sharp.
Of course, that was strictly speaking by the standards of ordinary people.
Shan leisurely parried and deflected the guard’s wooden sword, tapping the wooden sword lightly against the back of his hand reinforced with an iron plate.
After tapping it once, twice, and three times in succession, the guard realized the gap in their skills, sweated, and stepped back.
“Phew… I’m no match for you at all! I surrender.”
“What? Doesn’t it still look doable?”
“Got no grit.”
Unlike when dealing with explorers, intentionally handling them gently was naturally to avoid offending the authorities.
Beating up explorers was just a minor brawl among thugs, but an explorer beating a guard until he fainted, wager or not, was something that wounded their authority.
Annoyed guards could even issue an order to disperse.
Even after that, whenever explorers charged in, Shan repeatedly knocked them out or incapacitated them by striking their chin, temple, crown, or neck, while showing the guards a moderate gap in skill.
One of them even ignored the fact that he couldn’t win and kept raging on, but when Shan threatened him by pointing his wooden sword at his eyes a few times, he backed off on his own.
Through repeated sparring matches, Shan could freshly appreciate the strength he gained through Darkal’s training.
Even before, warriors of this level were no match for him, but that was merely the result of supplementing his insufficient power with attacks on vital spots and targeting openings with nimble movements.
Compared to that, current Shan, just like proper swordsmen, could parry, deflect, and sometimes overpower the opponent’s weapon with raw force.
Of course, because his weight was on the lighter side, his ability to endure was slightly lacking, but that was a problem that could be resolved with Fighting Spirit, so it wasn’t a particularly big deal.
If past Shan was merely an outstanding killer, now he could truly call himself a proper warrior.
After dealing with over ten people like that, the next guy who stepped up was heavily armed from head to toe, starting from chain mail to a helmet covering his face.
A shallow idea that since it was only a wooden sword after all, it couldn’t pierce armor, so he would endure getting hit and somehow land a blow.
Though he received boos from the onlookers, it wasn’t a foul since there was no rule restricting armor in the conditions proposed beforehand.
“Woooah!”
Seeing him charge with open arms without even intending to clash wooden swords, Shan ended up bursting into laughter.
Anyone could see his intention was to take a hit, grab him, and just touch him with his wooden sword.
Standing still and waiting for the approaching opponent, Shan infused Fighting Spirit into his wooden sword and lightly jabbed the opponent’s helmet.
If the intent to pierce had been contained within it, he would have been skewered on the spot, but fortunately, Shan’s intent acted in a form that amplified the impact of the wooden sword.
And that, too, moderately enough so that it wouldn’t be too strong and break his neck.
Looking at the opponent who stopped in his tracks after taking a heavy blow along with a loud boom, Shan raised his wooden sword high as he was and swung it down with a whoosh.
This time, unlike a moment ago, containing clear intent to sever.
From the helmet on his head to his chain shirt and trousers, the attack subtly avoided his inner clothes and skin, causing his armor as a whole to split open with a crack and reveal his bare skin.
At this point, unless one was an idiot, there was no choice but to realize its identity.
“…That’s Fighting Spirit, right?”
“Of course it is, dummy.”
“Cleaving chain mail so easily with a wooden sword instead of a metal weapon?”
Among ordinary soldiers, mercenaries, and explorers, those who awakened to Fighting Spirit were uncommon, but some existed.
Rigorously training one’s body to the point of melting and repeatedly recovering was merely a sure method of awakening; after fighting over and over again in the face of death crises for decades, some among those with talent and luck were bound to master the way to transcend the physical body with spirit.
However, the Fighting Spirit displayed by the boy before their eyes was on a completely different level from the clumsy degree unleashed by such people.
Above all, wasn’t toying with over ten warriors without being struck even once, or precisely severing only armor while avoiding clothes and skin, in the realm of pure swordsmanship?
Realizing that the boy before them was truly a monster equal to, or perhaps far transcending, a knight, the audience wore appalled expressions.
Even after that, Roden asked several times in a loud voice if anyone else wanted to participate, but naturally, no one expressed an intention to join.
It was the moment Shan’s name was deeply engraved in the minds of the people gathered to explore the Demonic Realm.