Ch.74Full-Scale War (1)

Dong- Dong- Dong-

The next morning.

The bell sound reached my ears as I stood at the top of the clock tower.

It was ringing from all the clock towers throughout Gagap, including the one where I stood.

The bell announcing the final day of the festival echoed throughout the kingdom. It also signaled the beginning of the Succession Ceremony.

But for everyone remaining in Gagap, including myself, it carried a different meaning.

It was the bell announcing the start of war.

“Now it really begins.”

From this point forward, even I couldn’t predict what would happen.

We might win the war easily, or we might suffer a crushing defeat and die.

Despite facing a war with an uncertain outcome, I remained remarkably calm without feeling nervous or trembling.

‘I’ve made all the preparations I could.’

Though I didn’t know what the enemy had prepared, I believed in myself and my preparations, which gave me confidence.

From the top of the clock tower, I shifted my gaze from the royal castle to below.

Down there, I could see adventurers and dwarves ready to head toward the royal castle, led by Leon and his group.

Their numbers weren’t small, but they weren’t particularly large either.

Many had fled at the mention of war, and many others who had the will to fight lacked the ability to participate.

‘The numbers have decreased because of that, but numbers aren’t the standard of power in this world.’

In this world, no matter how many goblins who couldn’t use sword energy gathered, they couldn’t defeat a single dragon.

So those who couldn’t meet even the minimum standards would just die meaninglessly if they joined.

‘Though truthfully, even those who meet the standards might die like flies.’

How many of them would survive?

As I was thinking about this while watching them, Lilly flew over to me with a dissatisfied expression. She was holding something in her hand.

“Sigh, I really don’t understand what Arges is thinking.”

“What happened?”

At my question, Lilly began to vent her frustrations as if she’d been waiting for this moment.

“I really don’t understand what that Arges is thinking! He went into the forge and didn’t come out for two weeks straight, so I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive, and he told me not to come in, so I couldn’t even check!”

“Ahaha… You’ve had a hard time…”

It seemed she was quite frustrated with her role as Arges’s escort, who wouldn’t leave the forge.

And since I was the one who assigned Lilly to escort Arges, I listened to all her complaints.

“But what did you bring now? It looks like clothing at a glance.”

“It’s your armor. I thought he was dead because it was so quiet, but suddenly he came out, threw this at me to give to you, and went back in.

Ugh… I’m so annoyed! Do you know what Arges said when he threw this armor? He said he’d bring the sword not too late! I need it right now, but when exactly is he planning to bring it!”

After handing me the armor, Lilly started lamenting again as if she was getting worked up once more.

I patted her head while examining the armor she had brought.

‘Scale armor, is it.’

The armor Lilly brought was basically made by weaving together very finely crafted scales of Lesser Dragons.

Thanks to this, not only was its defensive capability guaranteed, but it also folded like silk, eliminating the typical discomfort of scale armor.

Without delay, I put on the armor and channeled my magical power into it.

As the armor absorbed my magic, it took on the form of spiritual energy, completing a protective aura.

“This is good armor.”

“Yeah, I can’t deny that he’s good at making things, regardless of anything else.”

It was an example that no matter how far someone had fallen, their skills didn’t just disappear.

Still, just to be sure, I started checking if there were any uncomfortable points.

“We’ve arrived.”

“Kerung.”

While I was moving around to check if anything was catching, Kitsune and Kirara also arrived at the clock tower.

Kitsune seemed to have prepared as many shikigami and talismans as possible.

“Then let’s get moving.”

I could feel slight vibrations from far away, which meant those who had departed earlier were beginning to engage in combat.

* * *

When I witnessed the scene of the alliance fighting against the apostles, the most visible entities were the undead.

They were truly showcasing their specialty of quantity, suggesting the presence of multiple necromancers.

‘Well, it’s unlikely that one person made all those altars alone.’

Among the approaching undead, there were also dwarves and adventurers wearing relatively recent clothes and equipment.

They were those who had their life force taken by the altars.

“They’re really making the most out of each corpse.”

After making this brief comment, I passed through the battlefield without participating in the fight.

Breaking through head-on would take too much time, and it was obvious to anyone that their strategy was to stall for time.

‘At this rate, Leon should handle it well and follow behind.’

While we needed to drive out all the apostles to win this war, the apostles didn’t need to kill all of us to achieve victory.

They just needed to complete the Succession Ceremony. So some of us, including myself, moved to disrupt that.

“I can see the succession site!”

Kitsune was the first to signal after confirming the succession site.

Riding on Kirara, who could fly, Kitsune had a relatively wide field of vision and informed us about hidden enemies and the state of the succession site.

“I can see the Dwarf King, Vargan! And I can also see the dwarf performing the Succession Ceremony!”

“What is the condition of our king!”

“He seems to be alive, but there are several wounds on his body. He also appears to be restrained and forced to be there.”

As we got closer to the succession site, the number of enemies only increased, and stronger ones appeared.

Even though Leon and his group were drawing attention from the front, the number of apostles didn’t seem to have decreased at all.

“That level of power isn’t enough.”

“Don’t block our way!”

Nevertheless, the apostles who revealed themselves were quickly dealt with.

The apostles’ feet froze from the cold I emitted, and their heads were severed by the wind blades that followed.

So far, they were at a level that Lilly and I could handle easily, so we were able to reach the succession site quickly without being held back.

As soon as we arrived at the succession site, the dwarves who had moved with us took out the weapons they had been carrying on their backs.

“I’ve brought entries for the Succession Ceremony!”

“Me too!”

“And me as well!”

This was to prevent the successor from quickly creating a poor-quality piece to end the Succession Ceremony.

It happened as soon as we arrived at the succession site, and it succeeded before anyone could stop it.

The dwarf who had been hammering to proceed with the Succession Ceremony seemed displeased with the disrupted plan, and someone was standing next to him.

“Really. I told you, Your Highness, that I should have gone ahead to block them.”

“Shut up. Just stop the intruders without talking back.”

Standing next to the dwarf was a woman holding a snake sword emitting an ominous purple light.

Though I didn’t know much about curses, I could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary item.

‘It would be best to avoid touching that weapon if possible.’

Unlike me, who was calmly analyzing the enemy, the dwarves who had followed seemed momentarily shocked.

“Your Highness…?”

At this point in the Succession Ceremony, it was something they could have figured out, but they seemed to have hoped it wasn’t true.

The fact that the mastermind behind all this was the dwarf right in front of them—the prince of this kingdom.

Some of them still seemed unwilling to believe it. It felt like they wanted to think he was being threatened into doing this.

But such thoughts were stopped by Lilly’s confirmation.

“Both of those guys are apostles.”

The prince seemed to possess considerable strength just by looking at him.

Since a prerequisite for apostle possession was weakness, it meant he wasn’t recently possessed.

“Since when…”

“Since a very long time ago. I was able to devour the royal palace all thanks to your foolish king.”

“You…!!!”

Enraged by the prince’s words, one of the dwarves drew his weapon and charged at the prince.

But that weapon never reached the prince, thanks to the apostle standing firmly beside him.

“Oh my, that won’t do.”

The apostle immediately swung her snake sword, which knocked away the dwarf’s weapon and then swung toward his neck in an instant.

“And that won’t do either.”

I was the one who blocked the snake sword.

Standing between the dwarf and the apostle, I deflected the swinging snake sword and threw the weaponless dwarf behind me.

“With mediocre skills, you’ll just get in the way, so please step back.”