episode_0033

Alric, the leader of the Imperial Execution Group, slowly moved forward through the bushes. So far, everyone who appears around has been driven out or killed. Alric walked quietly, praying that the ones caught by the detection artifact just now were Leos.

“Stop.”

When Alric gave the order, Tyro and other members of the executive team all stopped in place and watched the situation. What they were seeing was two boys grilling monster meat chunks outside.

“Hyung… But no matter how much I think about it, it seems dangerous. There are a lot of monsters around… How about roasting it in a cave instead?”

“Theon, are you crazy? Have you forgotten that last time we tried to make a fire in the cave and almost died?”

“…Or, let’s eat it raw…”

“Have you forgotten that you suffered from food poisoning before? I told you to just trust your brother. All you have to do is learn it roughly, quickly put out the fire, and run away. I said I checked the surroundings carefully. There are no monsters.”

His younger brother Theon looked around with a restless expression.

“Even if there are no monsters… what about people? There might be people.”

“That’s true.”

Tedre spoke while looking at his younger brother Theon.

“Let’s learn it quickly during times like this.”

While the crackling sound was heard again and again, older brother Tedre and younger brother Theon were constantly alert to their surroundings. Alric, the leader of the Imperial Executive Team, was watching them from afar and gestured to the members of the Executive Team.

“Wait, there is a floating artifact nearby.”

The members of the executive team, including Tyro, looked around in surprise. A floating artifact that cannot be found no matter how many places you check.

“Where is it? I can’t feel anything…”

“It’s hidden in the bushes at 11 o’clock. The enemy has discovered our location. LEO… So, if it’s as I expected, someone believed to be Leos took a photo of the marauders from the air some time ago. It doesn’t make sense that there are several people using floating artifacts in a place like this. It is reasonable to assume that Leos is around here.”

Alrik lowered his body and immediately started running.

“Follow me. First, take the hostage.”

Most floating artifacts are equipped with a mana bomb function. Once your location is discovered by the enemy, it is only a matter of time before you are annihilated.

Alric quickly started running towards the two boys who were grilling the corpse of a monster in front of him.

“Um…go away! If you come any closer, I will attack!”

Tedre, embarrassed, stepped forward with his sword to protect his younger brother Theon. However, it was difficult to deal with Alrik, the trained execution leader.

-Chaeng!

After hearing the sound of metal hitting each other, Tedre’s sword flew straight into the sky. Without missing the opportunity, Alric slashed the boy’s ankle with his sword.

-Suddenly

With that sound, his younger brother Theon, who was next to him, rushed towards him, shedding tears.

“Long…tongue!”

“Don’t come…run away…Theon…I’m late, so hurry…!”

Tedre urgently stretched out his hand, but Theon did not run away and began swinging his fists at random with his small fists clenched. To defeat the enemy who arbitrarily violated my brother’s ankle. However, the difference in level between him and Alric was too great for a boy who had not learned how to fight professionally to reach with his fist.

Alric dodged Theon’s fist without even using his sword, and then kicked him straight away.

“Kuheoeook…”

Theon was in pain and immediately coughed up blood. However, Alric paid no heed and threw Theon to where Tedre was and then gathered all the executioners in one place.

When Theon and Tedre were in the center, with the executive leader and members surrounding them, Alric laughed and shouted toward the sky.

“Leos, I know you are watching. If you were human too, you wouldn’t blow us away like these guys.”

Alic said and thrust his sword at Tedre’s neck.

“If you want to save the innocent boy, retrieve the floating artifact. Don’t even think about taking off the simichi. The only way to obtain floating artifacts from Red Gate is through the Interrunner Store. Assuming that you and LEO are the same person, it is understandable that they are well aware of gate-related information and that there is someone with a floating artifact in this situation.”

A floating artifact. Spirel flew into the air and came right above Alric.

The executive members muttered with embarrassed expressions.

“No…it really was there, right? I thought the leader was mistaken.”

“How did you get here without us finding out?”

Alric felt pitiful as he looked at the other executioners. Conversely, the evaluation of Leos was changing in real time.

A floating artifact. It is a vicious artifact with high difficulty in operation. The fact that he could operate it as freely as his own body clearly demonstrated the opponent’s enormous ability.

‘If I hadn’t noticed in advance, I would have been in big trouble.’

Alric noticed from the beginning that Spirel was approaching quickly, but he deliberately acted quietly. This was because he was afraid that if he found out that he had noticed, he would attack right away.

However, as time passed, Spirel did not attack, and Alric made an assumption.

There is a good reason why the enemy does not attack even after discovering him.

Immediately, Alrik started searching around. Then, not far away, two boys were cooking a monster corpse. As soon as I saw it, I recognized Alrik.

The reason Spirel only observed and did not attack was because they were afraid they would get caught up.

‘It may just be for reconnaissance.’

If it had been a reconnaissance Spirel, there would have been no reason to continue following the execution group. Even though there were many people around, the fact that only the Empire’s execution team followed around was a clear expression of hostility.

Just like on the battlefield, if you point your gun at your head and don’t fire, it’s only when something goes wrong.

Alrik recognized it right away due to his long experience. The problem is Leos’ humanity.

‘I guess I couldn’t bear to kill innocent boys.’

I thought that thinking that LEO was Leos, and that Spirel only chased and did not attack, might be a leap of faith in some way. But Alrik trusted his excellent sense. The reason he was the only one to discover Spirell was because of his innate sense abilities.

Sure enough, Spirel was about to drop the mana bomb, but instead turned around and moved to another location.

“Fuck…”

Alric breathed a sigh of relief.

“Spirel’s attack was blocked, but she will be around, so be on guard. We never know when they might drop a mana bomb on us. Quickly install the defense equipment you prepared in advance.”

As soon as Alric’s command was finished, mana bomb prevention devices began to be placed one by one around the area. Alric looked at it and muttered with a satisfied expression.

“A law that requires any means to achieve a goal. From the moment we stopped attacking to save the little cubs, our victory was confirmed.”

Theon screamed as he watched the imperial execution team busily moving about.

“Please…please let us go. My brother is hurt a lot…if we leave him like this, he might die!”

Now I see that I only cut Tedre’s ankle, but he fell and hit his head on a huge rock, so he was bleeding. Alric clicked his tongue and cut Theon’s ankle with his sword.

“Qu…Quaaa!”

Theon was in pain. Alrik spoke with emotionless eyes.

“Your brother is in critical condition, so I will have to use you as a hostage. Don’t rebel and stay well. Then I will at least save you.”

“My brother…if you leave him like that, he’ll die…”

“It’s something that can’t be helped. Think of it as the sacrifice of a cow for the greater good. We came here to carry out the empire’s mission. No matter what you do, you must survive and complete your mission. If you too have a heart for the empire, be willing to accept your fate.”

“What kind of bullshit is that!”

Theon screamed bitterly and started crawling towards Tedre while grabbing his ankles.

“Brother…Brother…Open your eyes…Brother…”

Tedre’s breathing began to become shallower.

Theon looked around with tears in his eyes.

I was just trying to eat a meal. Because he ran out of food, he almost suffocated to death while trying to make a fire in the cave to eat the monster’s corpse, and almost died from food poisoning while eating the monster’s corpse raw.

Afterwards, Tedre, who could not bear to see Theon, who had been starving for several days, took the risk and tried to salvage the monster’s corpse. All they wanted to do was eat a dead body, but the price was horrendous.

“Please save me…I’m begging you…Please just use me as a hostage…My brother…Please at least treat my brother…”

Alric shouted, kicking Theon in frustration.

“Shut up. Are you unable to understand the situation? What treatment do you need in this situation? If you speak one more time, I will kill your brother immediately.”

While saying that, Alric raised his sword.

Rakart, leader of the Imperial Extermination Team, walked out with a serious expression and spoke.

“ Huh … Did you see such crazy cubs. ”

“Lacarte?”

Alric shouted in confusion, and then Faron slowly walked out. And finally, Leos walks behind the men.

As soon as he saw that scene, Alric gritted his teeth and muttered.

“As expected, LEO, that guy was you. More than that… these fucking bastards… dare to betray the empire?”

Alric looked at the assassination team leader Rakarte with a deathly look, and Rakarte shook his head and gestured.

“I inherited Spirel as you said, so free the innocent kids there.”

“What if I can’t do that? Attack all nearby troops. If you do that, think about it.”

As soon as he heard Alric’s words, Leos spoke in an emotionless voice.

“Speaking of surrounding troops, we are the only ones around here.”

“…Don’t talk nonsense. You came to resist us with that many troops?”

Leos gestured instead of answering. Then Spirel started flying around and blew up the nearby forest with mana bombs.

-bang!

-bang!

-Quaang!

With a huge sound, all the surrounding bushes were blown away. A 500m radius became an empty space with nothing in it. Leos looked around and spoke.

“Why can’t I believe it when they say there is no one?”

After seeing the scene, Alric laughed and shouted.

“Is it really just you guys? This is no different from coming here to commit suicide. So far, it seems like they’ve ambushed and killed people with Spirel. I can’t even use Spirel right now. What on earth are you believing in and making such a fuss about?

Leos did not answer the question, but asked the opposite question.

“I know it was sent from the Empire. Why are you tracking us?”

“Because the empire needs your abilities. To be exact, you need the Red Gate sealing ability.”

“Fix it on your own. I have long since escaped the hands of the empire. Because they were the ones who kicked me out in the first place.”

“No, as long as you live inside the empire, you are a member of the empire. If the empire calls, you must come at any time and dedicate yourself to the empire. I heard about your situation, but it is foolish to ignore the empire’s crisis because of something like that. Sacrifice of a cow for the greater good. Think about it.”

“What if you don’t like it?”

“No matter what I do, I will take you away or kill you.”

As Leos began to slowly walk forward, Rakarte blocked him as if he wanted to step forward. However, Leos motioned as if to get out of the way and immediately trudged forward.

“I feel dirty. I feel so bad that disgusting bastards who can’t do anything on their own talk like that as if they know what’s happening to other people.”

Alric laughed and lifted up Theon, who was lying down, and thrust his sword at his neck.

“If it gets any closer, it will kill you. Let go of the sword.”

Leos paused for a moment, looked at Alrik, and asked a question.

“Is it also the sacrifice of a cow for the greater good that took those innocent boys hostage?”

“You can say so.”

“Ah…I see, I finally figured it out. What a sick thing that is. That was just a means of rationalization for you.”

With those words, Leos immediately threw away his chain sword.

-Woah!

A chain sword rushing at incredible speed. It blew away the sword Alrik was holding. In an instant, Alric’s hand was thrown away by a strong recoil. Leos didn’t miss that moment and ran straight ahead.

Leos put Theon aside and whispered to Alric, who was stepping back.

“I intend to change the empire for some. Unlike you, I want to make a great sacrifice for the cow.”

“Such a crazy bastard…how dare he…”

“If you want to carry out your beliefs, try blocking them.”

“…?”

Leos wrapped his chain sword around his body and spun around strongly, slamming it into Alric’s shoulder.

“Kk…kkk….”

Alric stumbled, clutching his pierced shoulder with a painful expression. Leos looked at that figure and whispered with an emotionless expression.

“Why? After killing so many people for ridiculous reasons, are you afraid that it’s your turn?”

Leos added as he began to twirl his chain sword in the air.

“Why do you keep stepping back? You have to stop me, right? You say you have to sacrifice your life for the empire? That’s the reason for your life. That’s an honor? So don’t run away, come here. Because I will personally make your wishes come true.”