CHAPTER 11 – EASTERN EXPEDITION

Translator: Homia

Early in the morning, the front gate of the manor was unusually noisy.

A whirlpool of chaos, with soldiers, squires, workers, and administrators mixed around.

A middle-aged knight with a rich mustache approached Arsene, looking down at him.

Arsene, who had heard his description in advance, bowed politely.

“Nice to meet you, Sir Entir. This is Arsene, a knight under Sir Palato. I look forward to your kind cooperation.”

Arsene met most of the knights from the estate, but this was the first time meeting Entir.

This was because Entir had just recently returned from the lord of Arin Fortress in the west.

He wanted to make a good impression and greeted him politely. Arsene raised his head to check his reaction because he didn’t get any answer.

As Arsene raised his head, he could see Entir’s face with an unhappy expression.

He talked in an icy tone.

“Lenock’s son?”

“Yes, that’s right…”

“Heh, you’re similar to that guy. He also used to have a pretty face…”

Entir interrupted Arsene, talking freely, then turned around and disappeared.

The disrespectful attitude clearly contained hostility.

Arsene stared at the back of Entir, who was walking away.

Disgust and anger arose in him.

‘I’ll have to ask Sir Palato later.’

As a great teacher, Palato, an all-round encyclopedia and living history book, would be able to explain Entir’s attitude.

Arsene turned to the scene where everyone was working hard to change his mood.

The soldiers were at roll call and the workers loaded food and drinks into the cart. The lizards tied in front of the cart cried pitifully in frustration.

Administrators rushed around to check the number of soldiers and the amount of food.

At that time, a squire he saw for the first time called Arsene with an awkward expression.

“Sir Arsene.”

“What’s going on?”

When Arsene asked what was going on, he pointed his finger at his back. When he turned around, one hand was sticking out behind the wall, beckoning him.

If you watched it in the middle of the night, you would believe it was a horror movie.

Arsene, who sighed at the sight, bowed to the squire and walked toward the wall.

As he turned around the corner, Elise was hiding there as expected.

“What are you doing here?”

“…going out on an expedition? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I got to know yesterday afternoon. He suddenly told me. ‘You’re going tomorrow, so get ready.’”

“You should have said you weren’t going!”

“If the knight rejects an expedition, imagine what would happen.”

Arsene laughed bitterly at Elise’s ridiculous whining.

If Arsene had been protesting against participating in the expedition, he would have lost most of the friendly human relationships in the estate.

Some of the squires, knights, and Sir Palato might have turned their backs on him.

In this world, the notion of the preciousness of life was much weaker than that on Earth.

More important than life was the courage and honor facing death, and the military class such as the knights, squires, and soldiers, in particular, regarded this honor as the highest value.

The moment you give up your duty because of fearing death, no matter if Arsene was a knight, he would be despised for it immediately.

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Despite Arsene’s young age and origins from the fortress, to the extent that he is undeservedly treated as a knight, he must also perform his duties.

Then, Elise took an object out of her pocket and held it out.

It was a wooden sculpture with a wave-like pattern.

“This is a gift. He said it would protect you in case of danger.”

“Who said?”

“…Luden.”

“Didn’t Sir Luden give it to you for your protection?”

“Sigh, but Arsene goes to dangerous places. I’m safe.”

“You can’t just give someone’s gift.”

Arsene pressed gently, but Elise held out the sculpture with a firm expression and her lips tightly closed.

Arsene eventually received the sculpture and put it in his pocket, as he was about to stay like this all day long if he didn’t pick it up.

“You’re not going to die, are you?”

“I’ll try my best.”

Arsene only vowed that he would try, because it was an illogical promise not to die, and therefore a lie.

Whether or not she knew the meaning of those words, Elise said as she embraced Arsene.

There was fear in her voice.

“Seriously, don’t die.”

“I got it.”

Usually, people always die when they say something like this, but the useless thought crossed his mind only for a moment.

Elise, who blushed soon after, escaped from Arsene’s arms and left, muttering a few words.

Watching Elise going away, someone poked his head over the wall, and Arsene turned his head.

There, Genovia was looking down at Arsene.

“You’re already in love. Long time no see, kid. You’ve grown a lot in that time.”

“Thank you, Dame Genovia. You are as beautiful as ever.”

“Oh, I know I’m pretty.”

Genovia covered her mouth and smiled like an elegant lady at Arsene’s compliment.

It was nice to see a beauty with short red hair and a clean face smile like that.

Of course, there was a minor feature of being about 50cm taller than normal women, but what’s wrong with that?

Genovia, whom Arsene had met a lot so far, was a person who felt pride, not inferiority, in her own height.

Because it was the fruit of her own blood and sweat.

“By the way, I’ve heard a lot about it… but it’s really strange. How is it possible?”

Arsene could understand what she meant, because she was looking in the direction where Elise disappeared.

“I’m curious, too, but how do Dame Genovia and the others feel about the wizards? I asked Sir Palato, but he didn’t tell me clearly.”

“Well, Sir Palato is such a good man that he doesn’t like to say bad things. Except when he trains the squires.”

Genovia smiled and leaned against the wall with her legs crossed.

Arsene, too, had grown quite tall because he had eaten well, but he still had to look up at her because of the huge difference in height.

Thanks to her long arms and legs, her gestures looked elegant.

“It’s really hard to explain it. In other words, the feeling of seeing an insect combined with the unpleasant feeling of filth such as poop and urine, and then the hostility of wondering why such a thing exists? But I always get confused because they look like a normal person, and it only makes me feel worse.”

Genovia, who made a terrible metaphor with a calm expression, continued, tapping on the wall.

“Still, Sir Luden doesn’t feel that way compared to the lady. He said that a skilled wizard can hide his presence to some extent. Although he can’t get rid of it fully.”

“Oh, I heard that.”

Palato, who was reluctant to approach Elise properly, was still talking with Luden, so he wondered why, but he said that a skilled wizard can control his unique presence to some extent.

Luden himself has taken more than 20 years to master it, and it was not a solution as it was just lessening, not disappearing.

The metaphor that Luden had previously said, ‘It’s like dealing with a cockroach covered in dung’, was very appropriate for a wizard’s presence.

“I think I know a little bit about that.”

“Yeah? I’m not good at explaining things.”

Arsene recalled the maid who had fled from Elise’s pranks in the past.

He was wondering what she was doing at the time, if she thought that a cockroach as big as a child was coming at her with a strange sound, covered in filth.

Wouldn’t it take two hearts not to run away from the situation?

“Anyway, put aside your love affair and get going.”

“All right.”

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The formation of the expedition was remarkable.

Three knights, and every knight had squire followers, twelve squires in total, and ten soldiers in charge of driving, cooking, and other miscellaneous tasks.

Although the number was small, since there were three knights, it was worthy of being called a powerful force.

Palato was at the forefront of the formation, Genovia in the middle, and Entir in the rear, allowing the knights to cope with any attack from any direction.

In fact, as all three of them were riding towards the fortress, when the battle will start, all three knights could gather within a few seconds.

Though, there was no enemy strong enough that three knights had to gather at the same time.

“I got it!”

“No, man. This is honestly what I caught!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, my friend.”

As Arsene accompanied the expedition, he realized once again how great the strength of a well-trained army group was.

It was different from the miserable journey of running through the forest alone in the past, hiding and running away from every beast.

At that time, all the beasts he met while passing through the forest were powerful enemies that threatened his life, and the thorny bushes and branches with blade-like leaves stabbed and cut his body even if he was a little careless, causing fatigue from constantly traveling through the forest with a sword.

In fact, he only survived by chance and luck, and he almost died many times.

‘At the time, I only thought it was a terrible place where normal people could never live…’

The horned wolf, who gave much trouble to Arsene, could not even be called a proper enemy in this expedition.

They were attacked several times by small packs of horned wolves, but the squires skillfully used their spears to hunt the horned wolves and plucked their hearts out without the need for a knight to step up.

In addition, there were huge snakes that fired venom from their mouths, bladed leopards, and giant hedgehogs with thorns all over their bodies, but they also weren’t considered proper enemies.

When the squires met a burdensome enemy, they would just encircle him, while a knight would rush in and kill it in one blow.

As in the case of patroling, the squires weren’t left to awaken fighting for their lives.

If outside patrols are a kind of test ground for awakening squires into knights, long-term expeditions were real battles.

The knight’s stamina and magical power are replenished when resting, but seriously injured or dead squires can’t be recovered, so this was done for power conservation.

If the time comes when the squires have to sacrifice their lives, it will be a time when an enemy that even a knight can’t easily deal with appears.

In the meantime, Arsene was able to confirm the skills of Genovia and Entir.

“Whoa!”

While the squires were holding spears from all sides and surrounding them, Entir’s Jin jumped and passed by the beast, accompanied by cheers.

After the monster and Entir passed each other, the upper body of the monster, who was hit by his ax, fell apart.

It died way too easy considering that the squires’ spears couldn’t even pierce it, perhaps because of the black, sticky liquid on its body.

Entir lacked agility and looked sluggish due to his large size and old age, even by knight standards, but apart from that, his strength seemed to be great.

“Oh, Sir Entir!”

“It was awesome!”

After Entir participated once like that, it was common for the squires to follow suit.

Entir wasn’t modest, he swung his ax with a bragging expression, wiping out the blood of the beast, and flaunting all his arrogance.

Arsene, who was watching, was so embarrassed that his fingers shrank.

On the other hand, Genovia used a long spear to spin around the monster’s body at a high speed, stabbing here and there, making loopholes, and poking vital points.

It took longer than Entir, but her strength was that she could finish the fight without the help of her squires.

No, to be precise, the fighting style itself would be more helpful if there were no squires in the way.

‘It’s so comfortable that it’s rather ridiculous.’

Arsene also took a spear and finished some of the monsters with the squires.

Although his skills weren’t yet good enough to ride a mount and handle a weapon skillfully, Arsene’s physical condition itself was much better than that of the squires, so he had enough abilities to participate in the hunting.

By piercing the horned wolf’s body with his spear and driving it down, Arsene overcame the demonic beast that had given him fear in the past.

The threat of thorns and leaves was easily resolved, too.

Several squires took turns at regular intervals, cutting branches in front of them and making a path through the bushes.

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Rather, the branches were piled up in the carts and then used as firewood to make fires at sunset.

In conclusion, the expedition’s actions were more of a hunting trip than a fierce competition for survival in a remote territory.

“Stop! We’re resting here today!”

Nine hours after departure, as the sun went down, the expedition set up tents and set fire to make the camp.