Ch.263263. The Weight of Words

As the axe swings, cold air spreads along its trajectory. The sharply extending chill resembled wolf fangs.

For a moment, the woman called Findenai created a magnificent scene like a mage.

But the hunters quickly thrust forward their shields to block her preemptive strike.

Findenai’s eyebrow twitched slightly at them as they cleanly deflected her attack without much damage, having solidly braced themselves.

‘Better than expected…’

They were quite a systematic group. She thought it could be dangerous if she thought too simply or underestimated them.

But really, just that much.

Only at the level of “dangerous if ignored.”

Whoosh!

Smoke billows from Findenai’s war shoes. Rising up and charging forward, she boasted considerable speed.

But it wasn’t a speed that was difficult to counter.

War shoes were originally items used to move more freely in urban areas.

In this wide-open plain, they weren’t much help beyond allowing brief flight.

Even so, for Findenai, they were one means of preserving her stamina.

As her White Snow axe swung mercilessly toward the enemies blocking her path with raised shields, those overwhelmed by her strength fell backward.

Breaking through the barrier of battle-hardened hunters with ease, she appeared like a wolf coming to tear apart sheep.

However.

“Everyone, move aside!”

Here, it wasn’t a powerless shepherd boy responding, but a large man with bushy beard.

The hunting party’s vice-captain, Weilbelter, stepped forward holding a massive axe just like Findenai’s.

This rough man looked more like a mercenary than a hunter.

In fact, Findenai, not knowing their true identity, was thinking they might be some mercenary group.

Clang!

The two axes collide, spreading a fierce shock wave. An irrepressible smile flowed from Findenai’s lips.

“Ah, why bother thinking about it?”

Weilbelter felt as though she was speaking to someone else despite fighting him.

Even while they were fiercely exchanging blows and sweating so intensely that the cold air couldn’t cool them.

“I should just beat you up and take you away!”

No sooner had she finished speaking than her White Snow began to thrust forward. It moved so dazzlingly that it seemed weightless, but Weilbelter, blocking it head-on, unknowingly clenched his teeth so hard he nearly bit his tongue.

“…!”

He was neither Darius the Margrave nor the Mountain Guardian.

Weilbelter was bewildered, wondering where such a monster of a woman had appeared from.

“Hey.”

The woman’s low voice aimed at his thick neck like a sword.

“Are you distracted?”

Unable to even swallow properly from the chill, Weilbelter’s axe finally shattered, unable to withstand the impact.

White hair fluttering and blood-red eyes shining between the strands.

The wolf guarding the mountain range.

Though it would shame the name of hunters, Weilbelter had to honestly admit it.

He couldn’t defeat the woman before him in individual skill. Then there was only one thing to do.

“Capture her!”

Hunters poured in from all directions. They weren’t honorable professionals like knights.

They didn’t strictly adhere to one-on-one combat, nor did they feel any moral guilt when dealing with prey.

Nets and snares rained down.

Arrows and bullets.

Swords and spears.

So many attacks poured in that it was unclear whether they meant to kill or capture her.

Whoosh!

Findenai’s war shoes emitted smoke again as she floated upward, evading all their attacks with ease.

Having risen into the sky, Findenai grinned as she saw familiar faces rushing toward her from the Republic of Clark.

“You’re late, you bastards!”

No matter how much the Republic of Clark had fallen, Darius the Margrave couldn’t freely bring troops into another country’s territory.

The mountain range being terrorized could be a reason.

But Darius crossing a national border with troops based on personal judgment wasn’t an issue that would end with just the Verdi family’s responsibility.

Since the hunters weren’t affiliated with the Republic, public opinion could be manipulated like Griffin’s staged act.

In this ambiguous situation.

The solution was definitely Findenai.

“Ohhh! Boss!”

“It’s been a while! You’ve become even prettier!”

“Should we clean up these rude ones?!”

The members of the junkyard group, now fighting for the Republic’s rights rather than freedom.

They had arrived to deal with the ruffians who had invaded their land.

In the end, Findenai was at the front, and beyond her, the mountain range and Mountain Guardian.

Behind them, the revolutionary army that had fought for freedom from the rule of the Great Demon Magan.

“This is…”

Why had the situation suddenly turned like this?

Weilbelter sighed as he looked at the Norsweden mountain range where the fire had already been neatly extinguished.

* * *

“Haah.”

Deia sighed in relief with her legs crossed. Looking out the window at the group called hunters that Findenai had brought, she felt the tension in her body release.

It was well resolved.

She had been quite worried when the Mountain Guardian asked for help.

After all, it was a guardian deity asking for protection.

But when it came down to it, it wasn’t that difficult. More precisely, it could be made not difficult.

‘It was a misunderstanding arising from the difference in perspective between the Mountain Guardian and us.’

Seeing the Mountain Guardian asking for help, she naturally thought that a being stronger than him had come to kill or threaten him.

If that happened, the Verdi family obviously couldn’t protect him.

Deia went to explain the cold situation to the Mountain Guardian, and the answer she received was unexpected.

‘As the guardian of the mountain range, he couldn’t respond to threats from outside the mountains.’

The moment she heard that, Deia realized it was a communication problem that had caused the misunderstanding.

‘Well, there wouldn’t be crazy humans in the world who could normally hunt such monsters.’

One problem solved.

Deia thought as she stretched.

This much was possible even without Deus Verdi. She wondered if she had been too dependent on him for the past year.

‘No, that’s not it.’

It wasn’t that she lacked ability, but rather that he solved everything before she could even speak or worry about it.

She thought she could proudly explain what had happened when he returned, and just as she was about to have a cup of tea—

Clunk!

The door opened, and Darius and Findenai entered, dragging in the bound Weilbelter.

She thought they had brought him for interrogation, but Darius’s expression was unexpectedly serious.

“Deia, it seems this isn’t over yet.”

“Huh?”

Wondering what he meant, she watched as Findenai shoved the man called Weilbelter forward and kicked him hard with her leg.

“Gah!”

He fell to his knees with a faint exclamation, then carefully raised his head.

Deia stood from her chair and gestured with her chin for him to speak, and he swallowed hard before carefully opening his mouth.

“We, we are an organization called hunters.”

“Yes, I heard.”

She thought the name was quite blatant, but personally, Deia preferred it to something like Dante for being much more intuitive.

“The, the truth is, our reason for coming here wasn’t simply to kill the Mountain Guardian.”

“…”

“Spirit Master Deus Verdi! We came to find him!”

The story continued.

What the organization called hunters was moving for, and who was leading them.

Finally.

The message that this wasn’t the end.

The more she listened, the more Deia thought the man before her had little loyalty to the hunter organization.

It was astonishing how freely he divulged everything.

“This bastard’s lock seems to be only on his lower lip. It’s so heavy it just opens.”

Even Findenai struck the back of his head in disbelief.

The struck Weilbelter, though awkward, quickly moved his lips.

“We, we’re like a mercenary group. Except for the leader Lanhart and a few subordinates, loyalty isn’t particularly high!”

“Didn’t you say you were second-in-command?” Darius asked with folded arms, and he quickly nodded in response.

“That’s just a nominal position Lanhart gave me because I have so many subordinates.”

Weilbelter urgently shouted while kneeling. Knowing he had been captured and would lose his life if he didn’t side with them, he was actively offering help.

“Lanhart will come! He’s a beast who will never let me live after I’ve been defeated and passed on information!”

“…”

“He, he plans to kill the guardian deity and Deus Verdi to steal the souls he possesses!”

“Let him try.”

It had been bothering her for a while, but now it was truly unbearable. Deia frowned and gritted her teeth.

“Go ahead, let him try if he can.”

Who did they think they were talking about, and in front of whom?

Did they truly understand the weight of their words?

Deia’s gaze turned heavily toward the mountain range.