episode_0018

Shahlnu Stellarum.

Shahlnu, meaning the imperial family, and Stellarum, symbolizing the prophets.

It was the name of a knight order composed solely of heroes, signifying that it was effectively under the joint rule of two groups.

The Order of Heroes.

True to their name and reputation, the heroes received the highest level of treatment.

Their silver armor, made of moonstone, was light and durable enough that it wouldn’t even scratch from sword energy imbued with ordinary aura.

As befitting those who inherited the power of stars from heroes who left legendary achievements, their pauldrons were embedded with gems and patterns symbolizing that hero’s star.

And lapis lazuli cloaks, symbolizing the imperial family, fluttered on their backs in the wind.

No one else on the continent could boast better equipment or treatment than them.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The Second Knight, [The Great Master] Nemo.

He was a veteran who effectively served as the vice-commander of the Shahlnu Stellarum and, including the First Knight Orlando, the only knight past middle age.

He was not a hero created by inheriting the power of stars dropped by the prophets across the continent, but a great knight who had already achieved legendary feats, earning the right to shine his soul like a star in the heavens.

Behind this legendary veteran, who had fought continuously since the stirrings of the Army of the Dead began, followed two heroes who had only recently begun their activities as heroes.

The Sixth Knight, [The Advisor] Olivier.

Possessing the greatest wisdom in the Order of Heroes, he was a hero who built his reputation not only through his martial prowess but also his brilliant mind as a strategist.

The Eighth Knight, [The Stargazer] Talfinus.

A hero who was once a bard, inspired by Feanor’s prophecy ‘The Story,’ he volunteered to serve as the chronicler, recording all the Order’s anecdotes, which earned him the title [The Stargazer].

Despite seeming to take a minor role, he was said to be an incredibly powerful individual, already at the very end of the expert stage.

We primarily operated with them.

In a way that, once we dealt with the minor enemies, they would handle the highest-grade undead or equivalent beings.

Frankly, their martial prowess was nothing short of a disaster.

Slash!

Whether it was high-grade undead or highest-grade undead, it made no difference.

By inheriting the power of the stars, they had already embraced the essence of past heroes’ strength within their souls, fully unlocking their potential.

Moreover, each and every hero was a genius of extreme talent, so these two effects created a synergy that produced unbelievable monsters.

I had no choice but to admit it.

The reason the prophets were so intent on hunting down heroes like rats.

At first, I thought it was absurd, but they truly possessed the power to turn this enormous war around.

All of them were worthy of becoming heroes who would serve as beacons of hope on a continent shrouded in dark clouds.

***

Time steadily passed.

I saw the faces of not only the three heroes I first encountered, but many more.

One was the husband of the Fairy Queen.

Another was even a hero of half-giant descent.

Among the twelve knights, I had met nearly half of them.

But Kara was not among them.

Not only had I never seen her, but her whereabouts were entirely unknown.

No matter how much I inquired, there was no news of Kara, not even a mention circulating among the heroes.

I began to grow tired.

I had searched for Kara for over nine years, and I began to suspect that the path I thought was the answer might be wrong.

‘Kara.’

Where are you?

Are you safe?

I miss you.

I’ve been rushing frantically to meet you, so why is there no news of you?

If you’re alive, please, just let me know where you are.

I prayed and prayed.

Hoping to find a clue about Kara, hoping to meet Kara.

Now, the whereabouts of Kara, which tormented me more than anything else on the battlefield, made me pray and inquire every single day.

And just as I was becoming convinced that Kara wouldn’t be on the battlefield.

In the tenth year since I came out, I finally heard news of Kara for the first time.

-Extra! Extra!

“The Third Knight and [Hero of Verdure] Kara has defeated Legion Commander Johann!!!!!!”

Along with the incredible news that she had single-handedly defeated Johann, a Legion Commander and one of the Six Popes.

***

How long had it been since I last heard that name?

Relieved that Kara was alive all this time, and finally knowing her whereabouts, I returned to the knight order’s camp and sank to the ground right there.

“Military Administrator-nim?”

Seeing me like that, a woman approached.

Helena.

Helena, Camellia.

A illegitimate daughter from the Baron Camellia household, she was a peer who joined the order slightly after me, and now served as my adjutant.

With hair and eyes a slightly lighter brown than Roland’s, she approached me, her face full of concern.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. More importantly, you can drop the formalities, Helena.”

“But you’re my direct superior-nim…”

“It makes me uncomfortable.”

She was the only friend left among my close peers.

I didn’t want her, my closest friend in the Order, to use honorifics with me, and she understood my feelings, so she sighed and nodded.

“So, what’s wrong, Senior?”

She asked me again.

“……It’s really nothing, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Don’t lie to me. It’s not like I’ve known you for a day or two.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“Did those William guys perhaps badmouth you, Senior?”

It sounded like a joke, but it had a hint of seriousness, and I unintentionally laughed.

“Would I be like this over something like that? I was just genuinely exhausted, so don’t worry.”

“If you say so, Senior…”

“By the way, where are the others?”

“They went to eat after their mission. Katia and Irina went to the field hospital and forward aid station respectively due to injuries. Centurion Stefan will probably submit his report soon.”

“Tell them they did well.”

“Aren’t you planning to go yourself?”

“I’m the Military Administrator. If someone in a higher position than a logistics officer in the Allied Forces went, it would make them uncomfortable, wouldn’t it?”

“They’d probably like it even more, though…”

“What did you say?”

“No, I didn’t say anything.”

She equivocated with her characteristic sunny smile.

I wanted to ask what she had muttered to herself, but a document in Helena’s hand caught my eye, and I asked what it was first.

“What’s that?”

“The Duke sent a messenger.”

“His Grace, the Duke?”

“Yes.”

With her reply, Helena stated the document’s contents.

“Senior, no, Military Administrator-nim, he says he’s dispatching your entire knight order from the Northern Army Group to the Central Army Group.”

It was a transfer order after eight years.

***

The Central Front presented a different appearance from the Northern Front.

While the Northern Front had few high-risk individuals and an absurdly large army of corpses, the Central Front had a particularly high number of undead classified as high-risk.

Perhaps for that reason, unlike the North where corpses killed by bladed weapons were frequently seen, the Central Front largely consisted of bodies crushed by something of overwhelming mass.

For example, the corpses of soldiers flattened by a giant’s foot.

There were many more soldiers who met a gruesome end, their bodies crushed like this, rather than simply being stabbed to death by bladed weapons.

Naturally, the Central Front was tougher than the Northern Front.

In the North, we only had to contend with physical exhaustion from cutting down an absurd number of minor enemies, but in the Central Front, it wasn’t just a physical issue; there were many moments that rang the alarm for our lives, where not a single second could be spent off guard.

Furthermore, without the command of the Duke, a Sword Master who displayed overwhelming martial prowess, I, as the Military Administrator, had to fight while simultaneously leading my subordinate knights alone.

My joy at finding Kara was short-lived, as I once again had to spend my time frantically busy adapting to the rapidly changing situation.

Half a year passed like that.

“Target the chimera at one o’clock!”

I pointed my sword at a chimera, which had the head of a deer and the body of an ogre.

Against the creature that was about to hurl stones, crushing rocks into fragments with its grip, two knights used their aura to sever its joints.

And half of the knights, including myself, swiftly eliminated the soldiers rushing towards us.

“Military Administrator-nim! There are too many of them!”

Helena shouted towards me.

I glanced back for a moment and saw several recently assigned knights struggling to hold back the corpse soldiers.

Fearing that the front line might collapse under the sheer numbers if we weren’t careful, I ordered them to prioritize killing the chimera.

“Chimera subjugation successful!”

Soon after, Helena’s voice, who had been fighting the chimera with the knights, was heard.

At her voice, I gave the order to retreat.

“Retreat! Squads 3 and 4, provide cover for Squads 6 and 9 to retreat slowly!”

At my command, the knights moved in perfect order, slowly beginning to withdraw to the rear.

As we slowly retreated to the defensive line, Helena approached my side, where I was holding the front against the enemies.

“I’ll cover you.”

Helena, who should have been among Squad 9 and retreated first, instead came to my side and began covering me.

Roar!

Slash!

She cut down enemies at a terrifying speed with a sword imbued with aura.

Displaying an aura manipulation capability on a different level from when she first joined the knight order, she now cut down enemies faster than I could.

But then.

Boom!

Suddenly, a massive explosion echoed from the rear.

I turned around at the huge explosion and first saw knights who had been pulverized.

And.

Clip-clop-

Making horse-hoof sounds, two knights on headless horses approached us.

Death Knights, Dullahan.

Two highest-grade undead, possessing the martial prowess of a small elite knight order, had appeared.

At the appearance of forces equivalent to a quasi-legion commander, one knight muttered with a look of despair.

“Navigator, good heavens…”

As if those words were a signal, the two Dullahans sped up and began charging towards us.

Behind them, the army of corpses was pouring through the already collapsed front lines, and our knights, who were retreating first, began to be trampled under the boots of the corpse army.

Roar!

With a chilling scream, the Dullahans charged towards us, each swinging their swords at me and Helena respectively.

Clang!

Helena, using her aura, blocked it with relative ease.

But as I parried the sword, my body was sent flying by the Dullahan’s immense aura.

No matter how well-trained my swordsmanship was, I couldn’t help but be powerless before a monster of overwhelming size.

“Ugh…!”

Thud!

“Military Administrator-nim!”

The knights holding back the encroaching corpse army shouted.

“Damn it….”

Grab-

I picked up my gladius again.

And immediately blocked the Dullahan’s subsequent attack.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Fortunately, it seemed the knight wasn’t exceptionally skilled in swordsmanship itself.

Its fighting style, which focused on overwhelming with vast aura manipulation rather than swordsmanship, was at least easier to deal with than the Dullahan Helena was facing.

However, even with skilled parrying, my stamina was depleting rapidly.

If this sword, inherited from my father, hadn’t been a renowned blade, it would have shattered long ago and I would have been cut in half by the Dullahan’s sword.

Nevertheless, I was steadily being pushed onto the defensive against the Dullahan.

‘I’m too exhausted.’

I was already exhausted from having been on duty for half a day.

No matter how excellent my swordsmanship was—second only to the Duke in the knight order—there was no way I could defeat an enemy like this without aura.

‘If only I could use aura-’

I would have easily cut down guys like these.

If no one else were here, I could have freely used my black aura and easily cut down a guy like this.

The fact that I was struggling against an enemy like this due to the restriction of not being able to use aura felt frustrating.

Just then.

“Agh!”

Helena’s scream echoed from afar.

Her sword had broken, pushed back by the Dullahan’s enormous aura.

“Helena! Ugh…”

Clang!

I tried to run to help Helena, but the Dullahan in front of me immediately unleashed a flurry of attacks again.

Then it twisted its body, its back to Helena, pushing me relentlessly without giving me a moment’s rest, as if to ensure I couldn’t reach her.

“Military Administrator-nim! The front line is about to collapse!”

“Reinforcements! Are there no reinforcements?!”

Soon, shouts from the knights began to echo from all directions.

Behind the Dullahan unleashing its flurry of attacks, I looked at dozens of knights.

They were doing their best to hold back the undead soldiers, but they were gradually being pushed back by the overwhelming numbers, and members were falling one by one.

The Dullahan pressed its foot down on Helena, preventing her from getting up.

And then, like a highest-grade undead with self-awareness, it began to watch Helena struggle, holding its sword aloft, as if mocking her.

‘No more.’

If this continues, everyone will die.

The situation was too urgent to hide my aura any longer, and there were too many lives I had to protect on my hands right now.

I couldn’t let all of them die because of my single problem.

Grinding-

I unconsciously gritted my teeth.

I grasped ‘Morgoth’s Sword,’ which hung at my waist and which I had never drawn since becoming a knight.

Whoosh—

I gradually gathered black aura from my body.

A black blade of aura began to form on the non-existent sword blade, and the Dullahan, sensing the threat, turned its gaze towards me.

Shing-

But then.

Slash!

With a metallic sound that cut through the air, the Dullahan’s upper and lower body were cleanly severed.

Thud!

The massive body toppled over, and the Dullahan that had been trampling Helena on the other side also fell in a similar manner.

Clank- clank-

The sound of armor joints clanking echoed across the battlefield.

I turned my head towards the sound, and a knight in armor, with a pattern symbolizing the hero’s star engraved on their chest, was approaching me.

“Are you Agape, the Military Administrator of Duke Oleg’s knights?”

I nodded at the familiar voice heard through the helmet.

“Are you a hero?”

“You recognize me.”

The Tenth Knight, [Morgana’s Spouse] Danoa.

It was a hero I had seen just once before.

“I salute the great heroes.”

As I paid my respects, Danoa waved a hand dismissively and walked towards the enemies.

Swish-

Following Danoa’s figure, which had vanished in an instant, I shifted my gaze to see four heroes of overwhelming martial prowess cutting down the undead army at incredible speed.

About a minute passed like that.

With the appearance of four heroes, the Army of the Dead that had completely surrounded the area retreated, and the heroes, shaking off the rotten flesh and blood from their swords, gathered in one place.

And in the center, two heroes, clad in the most splendid armor, were conversing.

As they spoke, Danoa, who was next to them, pointed a finger at me, and the hero in the magnificent armor, who had been standing with their back to me, looked my way.

The hero wore armor with a sapphire gem embedded in its chest and the image of the ‘World Tree’ engraved on its pauldrons.

[Hero of Verdure]

Even though the thick helmet completely obscured their face, I recognized the hero’s identity at a glance.

No, I couldn’t help but recognize them.

Even with their appearance concealed, an incredibly familiar and longed-for aura emanated from the hero.

“……Kara?”

As I cautiously called her name, Kara removed her helmet and looked at me.

Long white hair fluttered.

Long, leaf-like ears asserted their presence, and cold, deep blue eyes gazed at me with an inorganic expression.

It was Kara.

It was indeed Kara.

Her appearance, seen after ten years, had changed so much.