The Baron Takes Flight
When I first saw Baron Pulpouts, the lord of Castle Cassadic, I thought of an eagle.
With his piercing eyes, hooked nose, thin lips, and deep M-shaped bald head, Baron Fullfoot was the perfect middle-aged eagle.
And now.
‘Is it a real eagle?’
Looking at Baron Fullfoot floating high in the sky in the aftermath of the explosion, I reflected on the situation.
Baron Fullfoot sat on the left side of the platform, with the knights in heavy armor and the rest of the figures on the right.
Beneath the Baron Fullfoot was the same black plank that the Scars had been moving around, but the strength of the black plank was greater than expected.
Even though an explosion occurred right below, the black plank did not break.
While the rest of the characters lost their balance and fell sideways, a strange phenomenon occurred where Baron Fullfoot alone jumped into the air.
Those who were not caught in the explosion were just blankly watching Baron Pulpouts rise into the air.
Among them, there was one who applauded and exclaimed, saying that he was indeed the bloodline chosen by God.
‘Was that intentional?’
I quickly looked at my younger brother, but seeing him blink his fleshy eyes and look up at the sky, it seemed like my younger brother was also flustered.
Beep-
The tinnitus became louder, mixed with the explosion.
The sweltering heat slowly dissipated.
I came to my senses and looked around the square.
Aaaah!
The sudden explosion caused people to fall, and they were tangled together, turning into chaos in an instant. Some tried to run away screaming, but they were only caught up in the high density.
‘Simple terrorism? Or is there another purpose?’
He rolled his head without stopping and drew his sword. The cool sensation made his tinnitus subside.
First, I had to sort out the situation.
“Group 4!!”
I ran out screaming at the top of my lungs. People were blocking me like a fence, but I didn’t care and just pushed them away with force, and a path was made.
“Group 4!!”
He continued to make noises between screams and groans of pain and loud noises.
“Chief! What is this···”
It was Brick holding Charlotte, whose face had turned pale, in his arms.
“It’s an urgent situation, so stop touching your chest.”
“When did I ever touch your chest!”
“Enough! Let’s slowly get the people out of the square!”
He shouted at Brick, whose face was red from embarrassment and looked like it was going to burst, while pointing with his hand towards a path out of the square. Brick nodded with a stern face.
I saw Brick’s hand sneaking out of Charlotte’s dress, but I tried to pretend not to see it.
“It worked.”
“Yes… Yes?!”
He threw a joke at Charlotte, who was pale with fear, and moved again. The situation worsened as the tangled people struggled to get out of the square as they came to their senses.
The smell of sweat, vomit, and blood mixed together to create an extremely foul odor.
“Group 4!!”
“Chief! Over here!”
“Get out of the way! Don’t stick to Rosa, you little shits!! If you’re going to stick to her, throw your money at her!”
“Oh my, how kind.”
Berman, who was trying to keep a calm face, was surrounded by angry Kel and Rosa.
“What’s going on? First, let’s evacuate the people…”
“If you try to go out first, you’ll get crushed to death, so maintain order by swinging your sword. Berman, you go this way, Kel, you go that way.”
“Hello, Aaron?”
“Oh, it’s been a while, Rosa.”
While everyone else’s faces were pale, Rosa, still full of energy, greeted them in a leisurely voice.
“Aaron, Luna didn’t reply to my letters, Luna···.”
“Oh, later.”
I waved my hand at the useless talk and started moving again.
“Move in order!! Hey you little shit! Don’t run!!”
“Calm down, and move slowly so you don’t get hurt! Calm down!!”
Snake-Eye Grass was climbing up the stand with Hannah and Kannah and making a lot of noise. Grass was like a shepherd dog, striking people on the head with its scabbard and getting angry.
“Hey, grass!!”
“Boss! What the hell is this?! We haven’t even sold all the alcohol yet, this fucking shit!”
The grass that found me crumpled its face and pointed to the wooden barrel below me.
“First, evacuate. Hannah, Kanna, you two should go back too.”
“···What about Aaron?! Let’s go together!!”
Perhaps because of the shock, Hannah’s pupils were dilated and she grabbed my arm and hung on to me. I paused for a moment at the softness I felt through my clothes, then pushed my hand away.
“I’m a guard. What if I run away? Take care of him.”
Even though she was a child, Kanna just nodded without any change in her expression. In fact, Kanna was more calm than Hanna.
“Ha… but I don’t feel good!”
Hannah hung on again and spouted ominous lines. My throat started tickling for no reason, so I scratched it with my fingernail.
“What does it feel like? Go quickly!!”
Only after I yelled did Hannah start moving.
please-!!
Hannah, holding Kanna in her arms, mingled with the crowd and disappeared. It looked as if she was being swept away by the waves.
“Director, what kind of crazy bastard is this… nobleman…”
‘···What kind of crazy guy is that?’
At the question of the pool, I felt sick to my stomach, so I picked up one of the glasses on the counter and drank it down in one go. The scent of red wine wafted through the air, and I felt warm.
“I don’t know, he must be crazy.”
bang!
At that moment, I heard a familiar sound, and when I turned my head, I saw Dalus picking up the fallen head with a blank expression. Dalus lifted his head, blood pouring out of his neck, even though no one was looking. Red blood flowed out, soaking the ground.
“···That guy doesn’t seem to be in his right mind either.”
“Leave it. It’s probably the spirit of craftsmanship. Originally, craftsmen had to finish their work even if it meant holding a knife to their throat.”
He waved his hand roughly and handed a glass to Poole. Poole spat on the floor with a look of discomfort and took the glass and drank it in gulps.
“Anyway, since you said you’d join the group, give me 2 silver later.”
“···Tsk.”
By then, more than half of the people in the square had disappeared. The other guys had also come to their senses and were leading the way while shouting.
“Stop! If you move, it will sting immediately!!”
“Don’t move!!”
There was a great commotion on the Yeongju side. Soldiers in a state of confusion were thrusting their weapons at the people around them and preventing them from moving.
After that, a miserable sight appeared. The black wooden plank that had been the stepping stone of the podium was still intact. The problem was that only that wooden plank was intact.
The lord in the arms of Knight Adela was bleeding from his mouth, and only the whites of his eyes were visible, as if he was unconscious.
And next to him, there was a tangled mess of people, and among them, the neck of the knight TOEIC was bent in a very bad way.
‘I found that.’
He didn’t die from being caught in the explosion, but rather from falling and breaking his neck. The knight’s end was truly miserable.
This was a problem that often occurred among knights. In this place where the iron worn on the body represented status, knights were always wrapped in heavy iron, and there were quite a few cases where they were crushed to death by the weight.
Sure, you could stop him by putting an aura around him, but you couldn’t keep an aura around him 24 hours a day, and there were always problems.
The others seemed to be in relatively good condition. Knight Ben was quickly turning his head as if searching for something behind him.
‘···What about Young-ae?’
Youngae was nowhere to be seen.
In this situation, it was obvious why the soldiers were so desperate to capture people. They had failed to protect their master, and if they let the culprit go, it would surely become a problem for their father-in-law, Dalus.
“Hey, fuck, bow down.”
“Huh? Ouch!!”
I stepped on the shoulder of the snake-eye grass and climbed up. The grass screamed and stumbled, but held on without falling.
Amidst the crowd of people rushing out, a black hoodie could be seen entering the alley on the other side. There were several black hoodies wearing the same outfit as him around him, and between them, the back of Young-ae could be seen.
“Over there!! The guy who murdered the lord and kidnapped Young-ae is running over there!!”
I screamed at the top of my lungs. I waved my hands vigorously and pointed in the direction I was going, and I kept repeating it over and over again.
The quick-witted grass followed me and shouted, and the soldiers who had been grabbing people and venting their anger only then started running desperately in the direction I pointed.
Then the knights moved. Belle and Adela both ran at incredible speed despite their heavy armor.
“Foreign security!! Groups 1 to 3 are in charge of the main gate, Groups 4 to 6 are in charge of the north gate!! Move quickly!! If we miss, we’ll all lose our lives!! Run like crazy!”
At that moment, the captain of the outer wall guard, whose face was flushed as if he had been drinking, shouted. His voice was so loud that it could be heard over the screams of the people even though he was far away.
“Oh my…, Captain, my shoulder is all out.”
“Oh, I forgot.”
When I went down to the groaning of the grass, Kel, Brick, and Berman were gathered there.
“Hey, Brick. I saw you earlier and you were really fucking happy. Were your breasts that good?”
“Shut up, Kel! What the heck is that in this situation…”
“You… really touched it? Brick, you?”
Berman looked at Brick with a trembling face and stuttered. Brick raised the corners of his mouth strangely, and Berman opened his mouth wide.
“Everyone shut up. What about the quarter?”
“He hasn’t come yet. He must still be asleep. The child has been acting strangely lately.”
I pressed my temples hard as if something was coming to mind after hearing the grass’s answer. Quarter and ah…
‘Come to think of it, my younger brother gave Quarter something like candy.’
I remembered Quarter’s happy face when he received something like candy from his younger brother.
It might not have been the case, but Quarter wasn’t the type of person to be this late, even if he slept late, so his suspicions turned into certainty.
“We are chasing the one who ran away.”
“But didn’t the captain tell you to go to the north gate?”
Pully frowned and asked back. The other guys didn’t ask either, but they seemed curious. If they disobeyed orders in this situation, they would definitely be severely punished later.
If things got serious, the favor I had made to Dalus in jest might become a real one. I was sure that Dalus would do his best to grant my request.
‘Did you just joke around with someone who can’t tell the difference between a joke and a joke?’
After a moment of hesitation under the gazes gathered around him, he opened his mouth.
“Don’t worry, if you get caught later, I’ll take responsibility. First, we have to find that guy. It seems like the quarter is related to those guys.”
“···This crazy kid! He should just sleep!”
“Director, are you sure?”
Kel immediately spat out a curse, and Grass bit her lip and asked. When I nodded, everyone else let out a sigh.
“What are you doing? I’m going to miss it if I keep doing this.”
Brick frowned, his kind eyes hardening. It was quite amusing, but no one laughed.
“First of all, he’s not alone. From what I saw earlier, he seems to be a wizard, but I’m not sure. He used something like an object to cause an explosion. He’s wearing a black hood. The knights are chasing him, so he won’t be able to get far. If you happen to run into him, don’t think of anything and scream. I’ll come.”
I looked at their hardened faces one by one and spoke to them, one after another, emphasizing the part about screaming.
“I feel relieved when the captain says so.”
Kel grumbled, and the rest laughed quietly.
I laughed along with him.
“···So you really touched it?”
Berman, who couldn’t laugh alone, looked at Brick with eyes full of envy and asked.
“Huh huh···.”
Brick answered with a low laugh.
bang!!
At that moment, the cold crack of the guillotine was heard again, and the craftsman Dalus lifted his last head.
The blood flowed down the guillotine and dripped onto the floor.
“I think I’ll have to run like the captain said and get my dick out.”
Looking at such a Dalus, Kel spoke seriously.
***
Beep!! Beep!!!
The sound of horns blew everywhere.
By listening to that sound, I was able to predict the course of action.
‘There’s no way out if you go that way. Where are you going?’
However, the direction of the escape was towards the castle wall, which I couldn’t understand at all. The way it was spinning around seemed like it was trying to shake off the pursuers.
‘Are you thinking of breaking down the wall?’
The explosion was large, but not enough to destroy the walls.
“Captain, there’s something up ahead.”
Berman whispered softly, sweat dripping down his forehead, perhaps because he was nervous.
I checked in front of him. In a dark alley, in a shaded place, someone was leaning against the wall. I pointed behind him with my thumb. Berman nodded and slowly stepped back behind me.
I slowly approached, holding my sword at an angle so that I could cut down whatever came out.
As I got closer, I saw the other person’s face in the dim moonlight. It was a familiar face.
“···Ben?”
“Ah, it’s Aaron.”
Knight Ben was holding the blood seeping out of his torn chest armor with his hand. Blood was trickling down between his fingers.
“Ugh… Be careful. There’s a traitor among the soldiers.”
Ben muttered, biting his lip as if in resentment.
I unconsciously scratched my cheek at the sight of that pitiful sight.
‘···Isn’t this kid a piece of shit?’
As I watched him collapse last time and this time, I began to wonder if he really had the skills of a knight. I wondered if he was just showing off by wearing armor he had obtained by fighting somewhere.
‘Tsk.’
I took out the potion I had received from Priest Blian earlier from my bosom and poured it on the boy’s wound. The boy grimaced as if in pain, but did not scream.
“I can’t express in words how grateful I am.”
Ben, whose face had become much more relaxed, tried to get up, but perhaps because he had lost so much blood, he staggered and fell back down.
‘The article is definitely correct, you know.’
He scratched his beard as he watched Ben lying there, gasping for breath.
at that time,
“Gyaaaahh …
A loud, unpleasant scream was heard.
***
Cold, the devil’s servant, was very excited about the rare display of his skills.
‘Those damn dogs. They follow the devil, so they have to put up with this and that.’
Cold took a deep breath. The corners of his mouth went up involuntarily at the strong scent of blood.
There were too many restrictions. I couldn’t go outside, couldn’t get blood, and had to spend the past few weeks in a state of frustration.
When he had to endure a large, strange-looking creature blatantly spying on his home, Cold got so angry that he ripped off his own fingernails.
‘Because the idiot failed.’
This was a plan that had been invested heavily on this side, but the guy who had been possessed by the devil ended up failing, and the whole plan fell apart.
I had to stay in a castle for a few weeks, which should have been open long ago, and I soon reached my limit.
When he could no longer bear it, the warlock gave the order to act.
It was a small castle on the outskirts, but it still had a population of over two thousand. If you drink as much blood as possible during this opportunity, you can make a direct contract with the devil.
‘If I had signed the contract myself, I wouldn’t have failed like that guy.’
I couldn’t help but laugh. The stumbling block was the knight, but he said that the warlock would take care of it.
If it weren’t for the knights, there was no way these ragtag soldiers from the outskirts could stop him. It was the perfect situation where he just had to vent everything he had been holding back.
“···Does this look fucked up?”
“I didn’t think I would agree with you, a bachelor, but I agree.”
Two men who were talking without fear were getting on Cold’s nerves. A round, beardless man and a man with a gruff appearance.
“Hey- there’s that weird looking guy. Have you ever seen that languid looking guy? The guy who always nods off.”
The man with the sensitive look moved his mouth arrogantly.
Cold didn’t open his mouth, but spread his hands. There was no human talking to the bug. He just pressed it.
Although I haven’t received the handprint yet, that doesn’t mean I can’t use the devil’s power. I have already received the seal of the contract from the black magician.
‘Because I’m young.’
Blood evaporated, dizziness set in, but Cold shook his body. Strength filled his whole body. He kicked the ground, and his body was instantly thrown forward.
The man with the sensitive appearance raised his sword diagonally to block the fist. Bam! The fist and the sword collided, but the one holding the sword was pushed back instead.
“Kell !!
The round-shaped guy stabbed his sword into the gap, but it was after Cold’s leg had stretched out. Boom! The guy was kicked directly in the stomach and rolled backwards.
Cold’s back was filled with excitement. His opponents were clearly weaklings, but Cold had never fought before. Just by connecting with the devil through a thin thread, he could wield such overwhelming power…
Just thinking about what kind of destructive power it would have if I were to receive the devil’s handprint was thrilling.
‘I will definitely make the deal today.’
Cold’s eyes spun around at the sweet and ecstatic taste of powerlessness.
“This won’t work.”
At that moment, the man with the sensitive look shook his head. Cold couldn’t help but laugh at that sight. Do you think he’ll spare your life if you surrender?
‘Idiot.’
Cold hesitated for a moment. Should he pretend to hang out, then crush that small hope at the last moment, and taste the thrilling sweetness?
“···I guess I should call you?”
“Ahem···. The leader said he was talking about training, but if you call me this time, I’ll be dragged away without fail···.”
Cold was dumbfounded at the sight of her talking to him as if she were at a bar. Was she losing her mind from fear?
“Still, it’s better to live through hell. I’ll count to three, so let’s do it together.”
“ha···.”
“One, two.”
Cold felt nervous for a moment as he counted with a calm expression. Is there something wrong with those scumbags?
“Do you think I’ll just leave you alone?”
When Cold belatedly tried to shut the guys’ mouths.
“Three! Gyaaaaaaahh …
“Eww!!”
The two of them screamed as if they were singing together. They screamed so loudly that the veins on their necks stood out.
Cold stopped his hand from reaching out at the unexpected actions of the two.
“Is this enough?”
“Because the leader has good ears.”
As if their work was over, the two returned to their usual calm expressions. Cold seriously considered how to react to that.
‘What am I doing? I don’t have enough time.’
Thinking he had fallen into the guys’ shallow waters, Cold shook his head slightly and crossed his hands. His fingernails grew long and black, soon turning into the claws of a wild beast.
“Wait a minute, can you wait?”
“···what?”
Cold almost lost concentration at the impudent request of the sensitive guy.
‘Are they out of their minds?’
Anyway, let’s just kill it cleanly, drink its blood, and then move on. The night is short and there’s a lot of blood to drink, so we have to move quickly so as not to fall behind the others.
thud-.
“Oh, okay.”
At that moment, a faint sound of something breaking was heard from afar. The two men returned to their usual peaceful faces.
“Those crazy guys.”
Cold approached them, wiggling his fingers and playing with his long, black nails. It wasn’t as much as the woman’s blood, but they were still young, so their blood must be fresh.
thud-.
At that moment, a dull sound was heard closer than before.
‘···what?’
Because the sound was strangely jarring, Cold squinted his eyes and stared in the direction of the sound.
thud!
The loud noise, like something being hit with a hammer, got closer and could now be heard beyond the wall.
“Wouldn’t it be better to go back a little?”
“I know.”
The two of them whispered and then took a step back, and only then did Cold notice something was strange.
‘It’s like they’re waiting for something…’
That was when.
Kwaaaaang!
The wall next to me shattered with a loud noise.
Amidst the scattered stone debris and the thick dust, the shape was invisible, but a huge, vaguely visible mass burst through the wall.
At him, Cold unconsciously swung his claws.
Boom! There was a sound of metal clashing against metal, and my hand snapped.
‘···A lump of iron?’
The giant red thing got closer, and only then did Cold realize that it was a person.
A man in a ridiculous outfit with a red chest, green shoulders, and yellow lower body.
‘No, is that a person?’
Disheveled hair, countless scars, deep-set eyes that seemed to be devoid of emotion, and bizarre outfits that didn’t match his appearance, all of it combined to create an indescribable atmosphere.
Cold forced his gaze away from the man’s sharp gaze, and opened his mouth wide as he looked at the scene unfolding behind the man.
Behind the man, there was a straight path that had been forcibly made in a place that was not a path. The man had been running, destroying everything in front of him with his body.
Soon, Cold instinctively shut his eyes tightly as he saw a large fist quickly approaching.
Cold was more afraid of this man now than when he had seen the devil.
