Ch.186186. Aftermath of Battle (1)

As the battle concluded and the barrier forming Sophia’s otherworld slowly dissipated, causing the dimension to collapse…

“Urgh… I’m seriously dying…”

While watching the scene unfold before my eyes, I groaned from the muscle pain-like agony coursing through my body and collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

“Good work, Gregory.”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I barely did anything.”

Lying there in a posture so undignified I could pass for a professional homeless person, I responded to Sophia’s telepathic message with one of my own, when suddenly…

“Oh, what about the war? We won, right?”

“Yes. Minerva confirmed it. She said Lancelot and Gretel were especially outstanding.”

Earlier, before we entered combat, I had left Lancelot and Gretel to lead and command my direct subordinates—340 troops—while Sophia had left Minerva on the battlefield as her assistant and strategist.

The warband that the guerrilla forces had attacked reportedly had an unusually high proportion of elite soldiers and mid-tier fighters, so I wanted to deploy as many available mid-tier fighters as possible.

And it seems my efforts had paid off successfully.

According to reports, Minerva glided just beyond the reach of mid-tier javelins, raining magical bombardment from above, while Lancelot, riding on Gretel’s back, swung his sword wrapped in mythril thorns freely, cutting down three mid-tier orc warriors.

Gretel also did her part, surrounding herself with an aura and repeatedly charging and retreating. Everyone gave their all in their respective roles, which led to our current situation.

As I pondered the battle situation beyond, I smiled with satisfaction as the healing power circulating through my body began to restore my physical form.

The muscle pain I was experiencing was actually a backlash from using the Sea God’s power. Even if it was just a replica fragment, wielding divine authority with a human body was practically suicidal.

I barely managed to endure it only because I had resonated with the Sea God’s divine beast and soul, and because I was a druid who had transcended the shackles of mortality.

In reality, the damage was inflicted directly on my soul rather than my muscles, but I could recover from it without much difficulty.

The immaterial destructive poison that wounds even the soul, and the regenerative power that counteracts it.

A hydra’s regenerative ability may be physically inferior to a troll’s, but it can heal soul scars that trolls cannot repair. Through healing magic centered on the hydra’s mysteries, I could treat the backlash from using divine authority.

And now, as the healing magic centered on the hydra’s mysteries had mostly restored my body…

[…May you reach the place you desired.]

Having recovered enough to move without much difficulty, I approached Yesugei’s corpse—the one who had bravely fought against me—and recited a simple eulogy.

No matter that he was an enemy, showing respect to the deceased is fundamental. If you don’t want to see a corpse suddenly rise and move again, this much is essential behavior.

After performing this brief ritual, pretending to be a cleric despite it not suiting me, I now wanted to preserve the body before exercising the victor’s rights.

Traditionally, if one wants to preserve a corpse for a long time, salt is the go-to method. Since the human body is ultimately just meat, preserving it in salt extends its shelf life, just like with salted meat.

But… with magic at my disposal, there’s no need to resort to such methods.

So I cast a simple preservation spell on the corpse—one simple enough to cast without incantation—and then proceeded to the formal process of collecting spoils of war as the victor’s right, but…

In reality, there wasn’t much worth taking.

During our fight, all the light armor like greaves and leggings had been completely destroyed, and more than half of the magical equipment he wore was beyond repair.

Even the seemingly only useful item, the orcish sacred artifact “Bloodstained Axe”…

“…!!”

The moment I reached for the axe embedded in the ground, I felt a terrible curse trying to seep into my mind, causing me to jerk my hand away in shock.

Well, it makes sense. It’s a sacred artifact of the orc god, so of course it would have functions preventing followers of other gods from using it.

Still, my efforts weren’t entirely fruitless. The main trophy I salvaged was the axe that Yesugei had worn…

That is, not the sacred Bloodstained Axe, but the hand axe he carried as a secondary weapon.

Although Yesugei had stubbornly used only the sacred axe, this hand axe was actually quite a good magical weapon.

For a large orc like Yesugei, it might be a hand axe, but by my standards, it was a regular one-handed battle axe. Judging by its decorations, it seemed more like plunder than an orcish weapon.

If I had to guess carefully, it appeared to be of northern human origin, with functions enhancing cutting power and improving durability.

Objectively speaking, while the weapon itself wasn’t bad… the problem was that I had no particular use for it.

At first, I considered giving it to Enerval, but thinking about it now, he’s a swordsman, not particularly focused on axes.

Of course, since he’s a proper knight, if I were to gift him this northern-style battle axe, he could handle it well as a secondary weapon… but there didn’t seem to be any immediate need for that.

‘…Ah. Come to think of it.’

Just as I realized the true identity of this axe, an even better idea came to mind.

※ ※ ※

Shortly after, I returned to the encampment, dragging Yesugei’s body roughly wrapped in tree bark.

“Oh, you’re here!”

“Congratulations on your victory, Commander.”

“You defeated the infamous Khan!”

As the commanders of each formation who were tidying up the encampment after the battle welcomed me, I smiled pleasantly and spoke.

“Yes, and all of you have fulfilled your roles admirably. As your commander, I couldn’t be more pleased.”

A few words, just a few conventional phrases, could yield such positive results.

Under the logic that no gain could be so simple, I finished speaking and… approached the dwarf Joseph Malonson to address the most urgent matter.

“Son of Malon, Joseph.”

“Oh! Lord Aleinos, what can I do for you?”

Perhaps because he had seen me defeat the Khan from afar.

Unlike before, his voice now carried a sense of familiarity and respect. I pulled out the axe I had been keeping in my “pouch.”

“Is this not dwarven craftsmanship?”

“…! Y-yes, it is! And if I look closely, it appears to be from the mythic era!”

Indeed. The identity of this axe I had taken from Yesugei was a weapon crafted with ancient dwarven techniques that had been lost to time.

I first became suspicious because the structure of this axe seemed odd for human use.

Orcs like Yesugei might have used it through brute force, but this axe had a strangely long handle and large head for a two-handed weapon.

Moreover, structurally, it appeared designed to be wielded with one hand.

And once this doubt arose, it couldn’t be dismissed.

The distinctively antique decorations that seemed too archaic for northern human style, the subtle sense of ancient mystery characteristic of equipment made with old techniques.

And decisively, the traces of runes visible beneath the leather straps wrapped around the handle.

“How did you…!”

I surmise that this runic axe, crafted by ancient dwarves, would be of inestimable value to modern dwarves.

This is partly because dwarves have an abnormally high reverence for their ancestors, but I’m more inclined to believe that this axe might contain techniques that the dwarves have lost.

During the fall of the ancient empire, the dwarves who served as skilled craftsmen and workers suffered greatly in that past calamity.

Compared to some races that truly went extinct, the dwarves who survived by hiding underground might be considered fortunate, but the problem is that in this hasty retreat, they lost countless ancient techniques.

Particularly, the mysterious runic characters, of which only 24 basic characters remain in the modern era.

Of course, since dwarves as a race haven’t disappeared, their ability to utilize runes has actually improved compared to the past, but that doesn’t diminish the value of the lost runic characters.

For example, if the “power” rune—known through oral tradition but whose details have been lost—were discovered, it could replace the rune-steam engines created with heating and maintenance runes with just a single power rune.

“Th-that equipment… what do you intend to do with it?”

Because the value of equipment using ancient runic technology is incomparable, the dwarf Joseph Malonson looked at the axe in my hand with desperate eyes and asked…

“If you grant me one simple favor, I’ll gladly return it to you.”

“A favor, you say?”

“Yes. …Perhaps, could you craft a breastplate for my griffin?”

In exchange for returning the axe—which held little value to me anyway—I asked Joseph Malonson to make a breastplate for Gretel.