Ch.7474. Weakness

I’ve caught as many as I needed.

That thought suddenly occurred to me while fighting a cat-person with claws sharp enough to easily tear through solid steel plates.

“Nyaaan-!”

An assault that seemed like it could shred my entire body into rags in an instant if I let my guard down.

It wasn’t a major threat. It was just difficult to neutralize them by inflicting only non-lethal wounds.

‘Still, this won’t be a long fight.’

After casually blocking the claws that kept targeting my vital points,

I extended my aura in a long straight line to sever the cat-person’s collarbone,

And then finished the fight by landing a few punches to the jaw of the creature that was meowing and screaming. It seemed I’d developed a habit of punching since beating up Gwon Heejin.

“…Most Experts wouldn’t be able to handle this one.”

I suspected that a knight serving some obscure rural noble would die before even exchanging a few blows. If thrown among ordinary soldiers, it would probably cause a massacre.

Soldiers at the border had developed techniques to fight against powerful beings even without aura or magic, but there was still a difference when facing opponents above a certain level.

…Of course, considering the scene we created at the border today, calling these beastkin “powerful” seemed rather pale in comparison.

Half a day had passed since our first engagement.

At first, we had to lure the beastkin out using Yuni’s and Silvina’s cloaks, but at some point, such tactics became completely unnecessary. The smell of blood from the beastkin who died fighting us attracted more of their kind.

It was a continuous series of engagements—killing most and capturing some.

The beastkin had enough intelligence not to mindlessly charge at us forever.

Evidence of this was the group that had just attacked us.

Whether they had coordinated among themselves or acted on instinct due to the sudden intrusion of powerful enemies, several exceptionally strong individuals of various species had gathered and attacked simultaneously. The cat-person I had somehow managed to deal with was one of them.

Now only one remained.

A beastkin facing off against the Captain who had joined the Hero’s pursuit team as a guest member. After restraining the neutralized cat-person, I stared intently in that direction.

“No more are coming.”

That was the complaint from junior Katie, who had gone through several life-and-death situations today.

Katie, who competed with the holy knight Holan for the position of weakest among the pursuit team’s vanguard.

In terms of pure combat ability, it might have been better to bring any random member with five or more years in the Royal Order. However, her slightly lacking skills actually increased her contribution. It was because of the beastkin’s instinct to target the weakest first.

Though I felt bad for unintentionally using her as bait, I thought today’s experience might serve as a catalyst for Katie’s growth. After all, it’s rare to have your life threatened all day by opponents stronger than yourself.

Katie herself didn’t seem particularly displeased.

Rather, she looked worriedly at the mages who were slumped down drinking potions.

“They’re only human after all.”

“Magic isn’t something you can use dozens of times in succession. Though someone like Yuni would never run out of magical power.”

“Yuni…? Oh, speaking of which, I heard Millia has been working herself to death too. I thought she’d have a hard time fitting in with her conspicuous appearance, but they say she’s adapting better than expected.”

“Ah, yeah.”

I should probably agree with Katie who was concerned about her peer Millia, but my attention was focused elsewhere.

I was watching Waynelight, the Captain, who was engaged in combat with the last remaining beastkin. Not just me—everyone was staring at him.

It wasn’t that we disliked the Captain and refused to help. Rather, offering help would be an insult to him, so we naturally refrained.

But.

“Doesn’t this seem to be taking unusually long?”

“Huh, now that you mention it.”

The Captain’s opponent was a bear beastkin with an enormous physique.

It was such a rare species that even I was seeing one for the first time. According to experienced seniors, fighting it felt like facing an intelligent ogre. In terms of pure physical strength, it was incomparable to other beastkin.

But still.

‘Should it really take this long?’

As I observed with furrowed brows, something strange caught my eye.

The Captain, for some reason, was barely using his aura. He was just using his superhuman reflexes to dodge or deflect attacks from the bear beastkin that was about three times his size, and counterattacking when possible.

‘Surely he’s not playing around at a time like this.’

That didn’t seem to be the case.

“That should be enough.”

After muttering these words, he immediately released a brilliant aura, thrust it into the opponent’s upper body, and ended the battle.

The bear beastkin looked at the Captain with a somewhat desolate expression before collapsing. It was the biggest catch from today’s operation by the Hero’s pursuit team.

The problem was transporting it.

“…It’ll be difficult for our members to move this one.”

The Royal Order had made a significant contribution to prisoner transport today.

It might seem strange to assign such tasks to the elite knights protecting the Empire, but considering that this was the border primeval forest, it wasn’t excessive at all. We were in a place where it wouldn’t be unusual to be ambushed by a basilisk while escorting bound beastkin.

It was only because they were the Royal Order that they managed to accomplish this task safely.

“Erick, no, Lord Wellesley. Let’s call it a day.”

This was a suggestion from my senior Garland, whose face had grown gaunt.

A knight who had been at the “verge of Master” for over a decade, only to face aging without ever reaching Master rank.

Today he seemed to have forgotten his age and performed remarkably, but even so, half a day of combat appeared to have taken its toll. Looking at his haggard expression, I realized just how many beastkin we had eliminated and captured today.

‘…Of course, it would have been difficult without those people.’

Our true assets were the elderly priest and bishop who were evaluated to have saint-level holy power even before joining the Hero’s pursuit team.

Now it felt like we had two Saintesses with us. Even Holan, the holy knight who could barely heal himself before, was now pulling his weight. They looked at me with expressions that said “Just say the word,” but I shook my head.

“This is enough. Everyone’s exhausted, so let’s head back.”

“Will the beastkin just let us go?”

“Who knows.”

Though I said this, I was confident that no further attacks would come.

“Let’s go back.”

At these words signaling the end of the operation, the Hero’s pursuit team slowly got to their feet. I was concerned about the bear beastkin subdued by the Captain, but that problem was soon resolved as well. When the Captain muttered something to it, it accepted being bound without resistance.

‘Perhaps he promised to go easy on it if it came along quietly.’

The bear beastkin rose slowly. Katie, who looked most similar to the bear beastkin in build, formally pointed her sword at it.

We had faced nearly a thousand beastkin by rough estimate.

Considering they were all adults, it was equivalent to defeating an entire army. While it might be insignificant compared to the Demon Lord’s entire forces, I thought it must have dealt an irreversible blow to the beastkin species specifically.

Yet the Beastkin King never appeared.

In truth, I had thought there was a 30% or 40% chance of encountering the Beastkin King today.

I had even considered the possibility that the Demon Lord’s army, unable to withstand pressure from the Beastkin King, might deploy undead forces. If that had happened, a large-scale battle would certainly have broken out at the border. The latter possibility was still alive.

‘If that happens, talk of ransom or sowing discord would be wishful thinking.’

To be honest, it was a gamble, or rather, it was definitely a gamble.

But to confront the Demon Lord’s army now, we had to take risks like this. Not only was the Hero absent, but even the nobles were flailing about in panic.

Even the Hero’s pursuit team, which had performed bizarrely well today, wasn’t exactly mentally sound when you thought about it. I had considered myself one of the more level-headed ones, but now I found it hard to be confident even about that.

We slowly left the border region. Strangely, not a single monster or beastkin attacked us during our return. Even though we were walking leisurely through the primeval forest with prisoners floating on light orbs thanks to the mages’ help.

***

He no longer even felt anger.

Leoneo, the Beastkin King, stood with his mouth slightly open as he confirmed the massacre that had occurred at the border.

He felt empty. Whether it was because this was the second time he’d experienced such a thing, or because of the absurd excuses made by the Demon Lord’s castle staff today, he couldn’t tell.

They had told him that the human Emperor had issued an imperial order to execute beastkin prisoners that didn’t even exist, but that he shouldn’t worry because it was just a ploy to create division.

No longer wanting to listen or interact with them, he had simply stormed out.

‘I’ll just capture a few humans and interrogate them.’

He had planned to invade human territory alone, kill indiscriminately, and capture someone who looked important to find out the truth.

If the Demon Lord’s army had deceived him, then…

But the humans had beaten him to it.

By the time he returned to the border, countless beastkin had already been killed, and some had even been taken prisoner. It was the first time his kind had been taken prisoner, and he was dumbfounded. He couldn’t understand the intention behind it either.

That wasn’t the only strange thing.

At the battle site, in a very visible location, there was something that appeared to have been left behind by humans. First, there was a purple crystal ball. Being able to use magic himself, he knew what this object was—a magical communication device.

And next to it were several pieces of gold.

‘This is.’

It was the same gold that the Beastkin King had distributed to humans under the Demon Lord’s orders. The method involved having cat-people charge at the Empire’s reconnaissance team.

Of course, there were always casualties, but he had felt uneasy about sacrificing beastkin for such a bizarre operation.

How should he interpret the situation now that these items had been returned in this manner? A slimy emotion he had never felt before arose. Something that couldn’t simply be defined as anger.

After pondering, the Beastkin King picked up the crystal ball.