Chapter 228: East, Hwaseong (16)
“Do you ever feel a surge of power or a boil of mana?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about…”
Amon clicked his tongue as a massive wall blocked the entrance to the cave.
‘Order of the Conquering King’ was a unique skill but one thing was for sure, the current Amon seemed unaffected by it.
It was one of two things. Either the skill hadn’t been applied, or the buff was so faint that he couldn’t tell if it had been applied or not.
I suspected the former. The skill wasn’t being applied to Amon.
It’s probably a problem with the “This is a command” sentence attached to the skill.
The idea is that a command is something a higher ranked person does to a lower ranked person. But to me, Amon was a coworker and a friend. And generally speaking, there is no hierarchy between coworkers and friends; you ask for favors and requests, but you don’t give orders.
So when I asked Amon to fill in the wall, it was a request, not a command. That’s why the skill didn’t trigger.
The Conquering King was literally a king, so any word he spoke would have been an order. Therefore, the skill’s use was limited by my status and position.
‘If I want to use the skill, I have to have someone under me.’
The easiest way would be to join the military. Nowhere is the chain of command clearer than in the military, but I didn’t want to be a soldier just to use one skill.
I want to have as many subordinates as possible.
That’s what this skill is all about, and I think that’s where it can be most effective, just like the Conquering King did before.
The other skills that can be gained from the Conquering King’s progression will be similar.
‘For now, the only ones I can use the skill on are Geppeti, Keraph, and the vague Volk.
There are two who have chosen to serve me and a Lycanthrope whose sister’s life has been taken hostage and who has no choice but to obey my orders.
More broadly, the “otherworldly” robots under Geppeti’s command.
Amon, whose chain of command is unclear, and the women on the other side, unfortunately, do not qualify.
I don’t know if there will be a war in the future and they will follow my orders, but at least for now.
‘So I’m supposed to be a king, or at the very least, a figure of similar influence to a king…’
It’s tricky.
I’ve given Keraph and Volk the order to eliminate the traitor, so I’ll know when they get back if the skill is useful or not.
I’m open to creating my own faction if it works. I have the resources to do so, and I know where to find talented people who don’t belong anywhere yet.
If I’m going to go to war, I might as well have a faction in place.
But since I’m not a noble, and I’m only a cadet at an academy, I need to have a high enough reputation that people will trust me and follow me.
Just as I was reaching that point, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
“…Zetto.”
It was a grumpy-looking Amon.
“…Yes? What did you say? I was distracted for a moment…”
“Haha… So, what kind of activity can I do here? You’re suddenly asking me to help block the cave…Won’t I miss out on an opportunity?”
“Have you finished blocking the cave?”
“For now, I’ve blocked it up as requested, with thick walls and not a single gap to be seen…”
“Hmph…”
I patted Amon’s wall at the entrance to the cave, which was unlikely to crumble if a small fox were to bump into it but I had to be extra careful, just in case.
“Orphele, can you cover this wall with ice?”
“…”
Without another word, Orphele quietly approaches the wall and begins to cover the massive wall with ice.
To put it bluntly, the members of the Continental Four Elemental Families are all monsters.
If a normal first-year Academy cadet were to do the same thing, they’d run out of mana before they’d even covered the entire cave entrance.
It was only because of their mana that they were able to create a structure of that size in one fell swoop, without stopping to rest.
Soon, I could hear the conversation of the four women in the distance.
“Could it be that Zetto wanted to play around?!”
“No way.”
Aizel shakes her head at Lucia’s question.
“It’s true that Zetto does go off on tangents all the time, but he’s never done it for no reason.”
“I agree.”
Yuri and Kaen chimed in.
Suddenly, I was being perceived by them as the one who always went on these inexplicable tangents.
Judging by the way Sierra nodded repeatedly between them, I guess they weren’t wrong.
‘Wanderings…’
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and looked up at Sheddie, who was sitting on my head, sucking the life out of me.
I wonder if he thinks the same of me and she looks up from her delicious meal, startled.
“Kerung.”
Sheddie lets out a single snort, accompanied by a cry.
Well, I guess that’s what they call medicine.
I wonder what I was like when I was a demon, so she’s used to it.
Now we’ve broken away from the group that was chasing Miho, and we’re standing in the cave, waiting.
“More importantly, why is Instructor Edward here?”
“Haha, I’m seeing what the cadets can do.”
By the way, Edward was with us.
When he spotted us slipping through the ranks, he flashed a devious grin and chased after us.
Maybe he figured it would be more fun this way.
Anyway, as we wait impatiently in the rainy, damp weather, we hear murmurs of discontent.
“Zetto, you can explain this to me now.”
Said Crank, who was blocking the rain with his shield.
“This is the front line.”
“This is the front line?”
“You’re saying something unintelligible again…”
“Just wait a little longer.”
At Amon’s grumbling, I held up a finger as if to say wait and scattered my mana.
“Hmph!”
Suddenly, a groan escaped Kaen, who was climbing a tree.
“What’s wrong, Kaen, did you get a bug or something?”
“No, it’s not that…Ahaha…”
She was still very sensitive to my skill.
Anyway, I decided to put Kaen aside for a moment, and I raised my eyebrows as I recognized the signs of the divine beast that had touched my senses.
“They’re coming.”
“What?”
Amon looked around.
There was still no sign of anything but rain in the forest.
“Nothing…”
“”Go after Miho!””
Amon was too afraid to speak, but the distant shouts of the ninjas cut through the rain and echoed through the forest.
Soon enough, he saw a small fox sprinting toward the cave and the ninja chasing after her, trampling through the dense branches.
“Why did you tell me to block the cave…?”
Amon trailed off, looking up at the sky where the rain was pelting down.
“Because this is a hunt, not a war, and a hunt requires traps and hounds.”
The cave was the trap, and the ninjas were the hounds.
I smiled at Amon, thinking that he’d done a good job.
“Excellent. Cadet Zetto.”
Edward, who had been watching the whole thing, clapped.
“Was that your plan? Excellent.”
Hamuro, who had suddenly appeared, also clapped since he also wondered when we got here.
The two snowy eyes, each with a suspicious aura about them, talked nonchalantly.
“This is… You must be Lord Hamuro.”
“You must be the instructor. The shrine maiden said that Miho’s movements were suspicious, so I came here to see if there was anything in her path. Apparently, Miho was… trying to enter this cave.”
“That’s a good thing, because our students have blocked the cave, and by the way, it’s Cadet Amon of the Caligus family who blocked the cave.”
“Haha, the Inhoshansu academy is full of talented people.”
“Inhosansu?”
“Innocen… Was it s-s? It’s a little hard to pronounce. I’ve changed the name to the Touhou form, but do you like it?”
“It’s fine, Inhoshansu.”
“In any case, it looks like we’ll be able to retrieve the Miho with ease thanks to you, and I, Hamuro, would like to express my deepest gratitude to you on behalf of the Kingdom of Hwaseong.”
Hamuro took up his posture and bowed slightly, then turned his attention to Miho and drew the sword on his back.
The encirclement to capture Miho was unfolding smoothly, but there was still one more step.
Even though Miho was weakened by the rain and had taken on the form of a small fox, there was no reason to believe that a cornered mouse wouldn’t bite a cat, and a cornered divine beast wouldn’t unleash her full strength.
Miho would reveal the fox core even if she had to.
-Grrrr.
Therefore, I had to prepare for battle.
“It seems like you’re a reverse swordsman, Lord Paradise Returnee.”
Hamuro said as he glanced at me with his sword drawn.
“Wasn’t I called an outcast?”
“I can’t call a benefactor of Hwaseong such a name. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but that’s what we’ve decided to call you in Hwaseong.”
“I wouldn’t mind it, but it’s better than an outcast.”
It seems like a lot of perceptions of me have changed in a short time.
It was understandable, because while there were some blind lords like Happo, most of them were quick to calculate what was good for them and what was bad for them, like Hamuro.
“By the way, are you sure you don’t need a reward?”
Hamuro whispered, sneaking up beside me.
I remembered that Hino had also asked me about the reward but my answer was the same as before.
“As I said, I’m not doing this for a reward.”
If this were the Celestial Academy, it would be a different story, as I would be able to obtain the medicinal ingredients to save Volk’s sister, but in the Hwaseong Kingdom, I had no need for anything.
If anything, their trust and goodwill was my reward.
All I asked for was that they agree with me about the future threat of the Blood Brotherhood.
The royal family of Ishay, and the shrine maiden and lords of the Hwaseong Kingdom.
‘All that’s left is the Celestial Academy and the Kingdom of Ho.’
The rest of the countries didn’t have much influence, so that was it. Unfortunately, Moon Kingdom was much weaker than it used to be, so I didn’t have to worry too much about it.
However, I’m planning to stop by the Moon Kingdom as well… My trip there will probably be a search for records of Sierra’s past or my past life.
All that’s left to do in Hwaseong is to retrieve the new recruits, like Miho I see on the other side, and eliminate the traitors.
With Volk and Keraph in charge of dealing with the traitor, all I had to do was focus on Miho in front of me.
‘They’ll do it quietly…?’
Since the targets were two lords, it would be noisy no matter what, but in order to do it quietly, there had to be no witnesses.
In that sense, I was a little worried.
What if Keraph doesn’t control Volk properly?
***
Contrary to Zetto’s fears, Volk was surprisingly quiet, so much so that Keraph was puzzled.
“Volk, did you eat something wrong?”
“Why suddenly, but.”
Volk’s ears pricked up from his hiding place in the bushes.
“I just… Something seems to have changed…? I don’t remember you being like this when you were fighting Lord Zetto…”
“It’s a strange feeling, yes. I don’t know, I feel calmer, more relaxed, and my body doesn’t tense up even when I stand still.”
“That’s good to know.”
“Did I turn into a turtle?”
“…Then you win the next race.”
“What’s the situation?”
“This guy named Bakura. I guess Lord Zetto didn’t have to get rid of him for nothing. You saw him during the day.”
“Oh, you mean the giant monkey that they let loose on purpose?”
The giant monkey Volk was referring to was Wen Yao, one of the special divine beasts.
“Yes. He missed the runaway divine beast that was wreaking havoc in Huaqiao. It was a deliberate move. I wonder what he’s up to…”
The simultaneous retrieval operations in various parts of Hwaseong were successful, with the exception of Wen Yao.
They even came close to recovering Wen Yao, until Bakura deliberately sabotaged the operation.
Keraph investigated, and it turns out that Bakura doesn’t exactly have any contacts with demons.
“Even if he did have an agenda…it’s all meaningless now.”
Volk pulled out his sharpened nails.
“Do you think you can kill him? You’re up against a lord of the ninjas.”
“I watched him fight and memorized his every breath. I will make sure that Bakura does not see the sun tomorrow.”
Volk declared.
Failure was not a word he could find in those eyes, so calm and cool that it was hard to believe they belonged to a young boy.