Episode 90: Grail Knight Zereah (1)
“Waaaaaaaaa…!”
“Long live Lord Zerea!”
“Long live the Lion Heart King…!”
Amid cheers from the soldiers, Leon approached the battlefield devastated by the ‘Purple Fog’.
Of course, Jaehyuk and Suho as well as the knights followed to escort the king’s procession.
“gulp…!”
The two swallow dry saliva while examining the battlefield in front of them.
Landslide victory.
No, it’s not a question of winning or losing.
The battle itself doesn’t work. It is a one-sided slaughter.
Only 30 minutes after the sortie of Holy Grail Knight Zereah. The orc camp in front of the gorge was transformed into a hell road.
“In 30 minutes… over a thousand died.”
“This is… the Holy Grail Knight. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it, but…”
This is not the first time the two witnessed the Holy Grail Knight. Because I witnessed ‘Majestic Geobrick’, the Holy Grail Knight of Earth and Abundance, at the gate of Jeju Island.
A life form with superpowers, the apex of the earth.
Living saints and transcendents chosen by God.
One of them, the Holy Grail Knight of Nogu, straightened his mustache and armor, brought a water supply and offered it on his knees. It was Krakan’s neck.
“I dedicate this honor to the Goddess of Death and the Lionheart.”
Among all the Holy Grail Knights, he was chosen as the strongest. The apex of the Holy Grail Guardian Leon Dragonia Lionheart. He was willing to take the supply and demand given to him in his hands.
“It’s a really dirty and vile top.”
Krakan’s head exploded in Leon’s grip. A knight wiped his dirty bloody hands.
“You did it quite splendidly, Sir Zereah.”
“I was thinking of getting them to play, but…”
“He’s pretty patient for a green beast.”
Leon felt the gaze being directed at them. He retreated from the death fog, but the orc main body was still close by. Even though their ferocious gazes were directed at him and Zereah, he did not care.
Rather, there are people who are frightened by the energy of the ‘orc butcher’ pouring out from Leon.
“If he didn’t move even with such a provocation, there must be a leader with considerable charisma.”
“Then… Could it be that the warchief has appeared?”
“Maybe.”
Leon searched for memories of the past. About 200 years ago… At this gate, two years later, the ‘lord of chaos’ summoned to the empire, and orcs all over the world were in a state of riot.
In that great war, the orcs were not on anyone’s side. Whether it was a human or a demon, it was the Orcs who smashed and destroyed it.
‘But it was a pretty well-coordinated move. Are there any Orc Champions chosen by the Orc God?’
there were occasional
A leader chosen by the Orc God to unify all the Orcs and start a great war.
In the war against evil species, the Orcs fought on the opposite side of their main battlefield. All I heard was that the great empire ruled by the King of Heaven, the great power of the East, collapsed at the hands of the Orcs.
In the end, he dealt with the evil species and clashed with the orcs who destroyed the sky empire, but at that time, he did not see a warchief who could be called a ‘masterpiece’ among the orcs.
Maybe it was an infighting between them, maybe—
“Is it still too early to judge?”
Leon turned his horse’s head. Ignoring the stares I felt inside the headquarters of the orcs and beast gods who had flocked in pitch black.
* * * *
Barracks in the canyon. While the soldiers stood guard and watched the movements of the orcs, Leon visited the tent of Zereah, the commander of the holy relic convoy.
“Welcome, Your Majesty. I’m sorry to have you in such a shabby place.”
“I’m not young enough to fool around on the battlefield.”
“Haha, who dares to disregard Your Majesty because he is young?”
Leon’s age seemed to be a young man in his mid-twenties at most. However, speaking of the Holy Grail Knight, he reconstructs his body to the days when he was at his peak.
In Leon’s case, he became a Holy Grail Knight at a very young age, but other Holy Grail Knights are similar to him or in their 30s.
Considering that Leon is 96 years old even by the standard of the present world, he cannot be said to be old among the Holy Grail Knights, but he is not too young.
Zereah, who is about the same age as my grandfather right in front of me, is 158 years old this year, and belongs to the middle among the Holy Grail Knights.
“Anyway, you… are still the same.”
Leon saw this decrepit Holy Grail Knight.
A person who walked the path of training for 70 years and traveled all over the continent.
He became a Holy Grail Knight at the most advanced age and even in his prime, he looks like a benevolent grandfather on the outside.
“I saw him not too long ago when I received the king’s order. How can you look so longing for him? This old man is absolutely devastated.”
“It’s not like that.”
Leon lost countless comrades and friends in the great war against the devil.
Among them, there were the Grail Knights whom he trusted and relied on the most, and they ascended first and left the rest to themselves, but some of the Holy Grail Knights did not even see the ascension.
One of them is Zereah in front of me.
Leon considered it a burden on his heart that he had not been able to perform the Ascension Ceremony that Lion Heart King had performed with him whenever successive Holy Grail Knights ascended to heaven.
He was an ugly king who couldn’t keep the Holy Grail knights’ farewell.
“Sir Zereah. I have something I need to tell you.”
“I will listen.”
Leon slowly began to tell the truth about this world.
That he had fought against demons for 200 years, and that the world was finally destroyed.
The fact that a new pantheon was built on Earth and that place is also being invaded by demons.
Opening the gate here… More than anything… … .
“You have already ascended. I met you in the paradise of the gods.”
Even the fact that Zereah had already died and ascended to the paradise of the gods.
“…”
Zereah was at a loss for words after hearing so much shocking news.
Everyone will. That he had already died, that the world had perished, and that he was merely a reenactment of a moment in history.
There was nothing that wasn’t shocking, and it was full of things to deny. However, this old man’s article did not.
“sorry.”
Zereah got up from her seat and fell on her knees.
“How can you be sorry. Get up quickly!”
Leon hurriedly raised him up, but Zereah swallowed the bitterness and expressed her regret.
“How did you endure that long battle… alone. Do not forgive this disloyal knight.”
Zereah was just sorry that he couldn’t fight the king to the end.
In the process of raising him up after confessing his sins like that, Zereah heard about his future and was sure.
“If I died at the hands of the orcs… the appearance of an orc warchief would be virtually certain.”
“That’s right. A champion chosen by one of the Orc gods will be on this battlefield.”
Orcs are spread all over the continent and all over the world, but among them, a warchief who unites several orc tribes appears.
A person who unites as few as five to as many as ten orc tribes and obtains the position of warchief.
In an orc society where the strong is the leader, the only orc with that kind of power is the orc champion, who is favored by the orc god.
Since ancient times, the appearance of an Orc Champion meant a great war.
Leon also went through two great wars caused by the Orc Champion, and earned the honorable title of 【The Most Orc Slaughterer among Primates】 in that war.
“Your Majesty, then what is your Majesty trying to achieve here?”
“It is fundamentally one.”
Gate test. Acquiring loot through system-given quests is a secondary issue.
“But after entering this gate, I got another one.”
“???”
Leon showed a rare smile towards his reliable comrade.
“This time, I want to be with my friend until the end.”
* * * *
Dumb Zereah’s life story was quite famous even to Leon.
When Leon was only twenty-seven years old and preparing for war with the Orcs as a Grail Knight and War Knight, he saw an attendant riding a horse to fight in the war.
“Say your name.”
“This is Zerea, the second son of Baron Vertum and served in the Riona Sunset Knights.”
An 87-year-old trainee who is slowly aging even if he is a Lionheart who ages slowly. According to what I heard, it was already fifty years ago that I served in the Knights Order as a Knight of the Kingdom.
Leon summoned the old attendant separately to refuse to participate in the war.
“Sir Zereah. This Orc Conquest is a war to subdue the quivering Orc Champions. It could be a bit dangerous for you to advance.”
I said it around, but it meant that I would send it back in the end. Numerous knights could feel this as an insult, or perhaps as a consideration.
Leon had no intention of bringing him into battle, no matter how he took it.
To him, whose knowledge and experience on Earth had not completely disappeared, an old man in his 80s was not the age to put himself into the battlefield.
This is because, with the exception of creatures with superpowers such as the Holy Grail Knight, even knights do not escape the limits of humans in the end.
“Honorable Grail Knight of Light and Justice, give me a place at the very bottom. It doesn’t matter whether you mix with common riders or pike among man-at-arms.”
It was a great insult to the knight. Heavy armored knights who are supposed to win glory with honor will fight among light cavalry or general infantry?
It meant giving up even the chance to win glory.
“Why do you want to go to war like that? There are other ways to win glory.”
“Only honor and glory are not important. This is my way of life.”
Leon realized the uprightness of this pathetic, stupid, ridiculed knight.
Sometimes he wallows in mud with monsters, sometimes he fights with mercenaries to earn money for his travels, sometimes he climbs a thunder-clad mountain barefoot without any gear—
“You’re just being faithful every moment.”
Leon had a hunch that this man would stay that way until the moment he died.
* * * *
dawn. A time when the sun has not yet risen.
Orcs’ lives are honest.
Wake up in the morning, eat at lunch, fight in the afternoon, eat in the evening, and sleep at night.
It can be said to be like humans, but compared to humans who split their time and sometimes change day and night, it could be said to be much simpler and ‘ignorant’.
Live simply strong and simply. The idea of a creature that is an orc.
So, unexpectedly, the weakness of Orcs is clear. They were vulnerable to night raids.
– It’s fire!
– The tent is on fire!
Not the redheads of the night. Orcs had to wake up startled by the flames rising from the corner of the camp.
“What’s up!”
Molkan, one of the orc tribal chiefs mobilized in this war, caught the orc making a fuss and asked.
“There’s a fire in the food warehouse! Humans are attacking!”
“The guards must have been stuff that smelled like animals?”
“I do not know either!”
There were not only Orcs, but also barbarians who served the Beast God. They must have been on guard for the night… … .
“Stupid humans!”
However, there will be a unfair side to them too.
With the canyon in front, the number of humans is only a few hundred. On the other hand, this is tens of thousands.
No matter how many thousands of Orcs were slaughtered during the day, their numbers were overflowing. Are you setting a night raid on them?
That’s because it’s ‘alone’.
“The smell of burning beasts is really fragrant.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Beyond the blazing fire. The two knights were appreciating it under cover of darkness.
Needless to say Leon and Zerea. Two Holy Grail Knights attacked the Orcs’ camp at night.
Because they were all-round Holy Grail Knights with transcendent power and the ability to deal with any situation, even a night attack by just the two of them could inflict great damage on the orc camp.
“Your Majesty, you can leave this to me alone.”
“Don’t try to claim all the glory, my friend. I just want to hear the throes of those beasts.”
“It’s easier now that His Majesty is in place.”
“Well, it would have been more comfortable if Queen Spero or Sir Spinner had been there.”
“Queen Spero and… Lord Spinner?”
It was a bond that Leon made in another world. Of course he couldn’t help but know.
“It’s nothing to worry about. If you’re lucky, you might be able to join the two of them, so I’ll explain then.”
“I’m looking forward to that.”
“But it’s just the two of us today. We’ll have to shove the orcs in the middle of the night.”
At those words, Zereagi smiled twistedly. It was a smile that the orcs would have blasphemed as ‘devils’ if they had seen it.
“There are two Holy Grail Knights here. What could be impossible?”
Holy Grail Knight.
Superpowered weapons that transcend legions single-handedly.
Zereah judged that nothing was impossible with the most powerful Holy Grail Knight among them, if not alone.
“In the end, the moment that will end as a fleeting illusion. I will try to extract as much information as possible for Your Majesty.”
In order to clarify the truth about the relic convoy that ended in failure in history, Zereah willingly decided to dedicate this moment.
And if.
If this moment does not go according to history.
If it had faithfully reproduced the Lionheart Kingdom at the time.
‘The man is coming.’
The strongest Holy Grail Knight comparable to the current Lion Heart King.
