Player Who Became A Constellation [EN]: Chapter 53

53. The Player Who Became a Constellation

“Alright! Everyone, fire arrows! Pour water!”

Under the knights’ command, the soldiers moved. Confident in their victory, they mocked the wights that continuously rammed the castle walls, firing arrows and pouring hot water.

“Haha! You fools!”

“You’re destroying yourselves!”

Ash felt relieved at the soldiers’ shouts.

Having experienced the power of the wights, he knew well that if even one wight had been inside the castle walls, it would have fallen in minutes.

But they had nothing to fear from an enemy that couldn’t attack.

At this rate, they could surely win!

“Indeed! Staying here was the right choice! Norseman! I was right!”

Ash spoke to Loki, seeking acknowledgment that he was right, but Loki only shook his head as he watched the siege.

Then, he turned and headed for the stairs leading down from the castle walls.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to the back of the territory. There shouldn’t be any wights there yet.”

“B, but we’re winning! Wouldn’t it be better to stay here? Admit it now. Admit that I was right!”

Ash followed Loki, subtly trying to contradict him.

It was to repay even a little of the humiliation he had suffered so far.

Loki looked at Ash and said,

“You have no observational skills. I don’t know what title you hold, but it seems there’s a reason for your downfall.”

“W, what?!”

Ash was about to retort to Loki’s words when—

“Why aren’t they dying?!”

Ash was startled and shifted his gaze.

The wights were still ramming the castle walls. Just looking at them, it seemed like a foolish struggle.

After all, the soldiers above were firing arrows and pouring hot water.

But the wights ignored the arrows piercing them and the hot water scalding them, focusing only on ramming the castle walls.

Even with dozens of arrows embedded in their bodies and their skin blistering from the hot water, the wights did not die and continued to batter the castle walls.

Some wights even raised their heads and glared at the soldiers on the castle walls.

The knight in charge, seeing their expressions as if they would devour them, shouted in a trembling voice, seemingly terrified.

“O, oil! Pour oil and set it on fire! Burning them is the only way!”

The soldiers hurriedly brought the remaining oil from the Harma territory and poured it down the castle walls.

The scorching oil had no effect. Seeing this, the knight desperately threw a torch.

Flames erupted, engulfing the wights.

“That’s it!”

The knight’s expression brightened, but the soldier next to him had a grim expression and muttered,

“…That’s…it? Is it?”

At the soldier’s words, the knight looked back into the fire. Some of the wights were burned and collapsed, but those with only parts of their bodies still attached continued to move.

The knight shook his head in denial, stepping back.

“No…way.”

Only a very few wights had died despite the numerous attacks.

It was truly a ‘demon’s legion.’

It would be impossible to keep attacking with the already insufficient supplies.

More than anything, if they were surrounded, they would be isolated from the outside and face death.

The odds of winning were gradually diminishing.

Watching the wights moving even as their bodies burned, the soldiers forgot to attack and simply stared blankly at the scene.

They had already lost their will to fight, even without being directly attacked.

“How can we win against these things…?!”

“He was right… We can’t win without the Holy Order’s paladins!”

“Win? The paladins? Are you making sense? Do you think even the Holy Order can handle thousands of wights?!”

Confusion spread.

Even though no one had died yet, the ranks were falling apart, and people were abandoning their weapons and deserting their posts.

The knight in charge was also out of his mind, unable to make proper judgments.

Ash sensed that the situation was turning strange.

They hadn’t even breached the castle walls yet, but they had already lost their will to fight?

Loki, who was about to go down the stairs, frowned at the smell of burning from the tip of his nose.

“You’ve done something unnecessary.”

“…What do you mean?”

Ash felt a sudden fear at Loki’s meaningful words.

Could there be an even worse situation here?

“It’s going to be breached.”

Breached? Could it be the castle walls…?

Ash looked over the rough castle walls with a desperate heart.

It was quite a daring act, but his face was stained with fear rather than courage.

The castle walls were gradually crumbling each time the wights’ bodies collided with them. If that was all, it wouldn’t matter.

At that rate, they could hold out for a few days. However, the problem was that the gate was ‘on fire.’

The gate was already unstable due to the wights’ reckless charges.

In that situation, a wight on fire charged, and the fire quickly began to spread to the gate.

“Run…! We have to run! Norseman! Quickly, to the back gate…!”

Loki frowned inside his crow mask.

“…Too late.”

As if his words were a signal, the gate was breached by the wights’ attack.

***

“…No matter how I look at it, they don’t seem like a mercenary group, do they?”

Kudan spoke to Aum, who was passing by the side of the driver’s seat.

Then, he smiled awkwardly and looked back.

Kudan was sitting in the driver’s seat, using a horse to pull the cart, and behind it were over ten carts pulled by horses, with Aum’s direct unit, the Berserker warriors, sitting on them.

In Kudan’s eyes, they looked too suspicious to be the ‘appropriately sized mercenary group’ that Aum Linnea had mentioned.

Wolf skulls, bear skulls, lion or tiger skulls, etc.

They wore helmets made of beast skulls.

However, the material was not ‘bone’ but a dark brown metal.

Also, the armor they wore looked unusual.

On their shoulders, they wore cloaks made of fur and leather from monsters, not beasts.

The only thing that made them look like mercenaries was their non-uniform weapons.

Some had longswords and round shields, while others had morning stars, warhammers, or bastard swords, with a variety of types.

However, they seemed much larger than the average weapons on the continent.

Even though they were wearing heavy equipment that even a well-trained person would doubt they could use properly, they were chatting leisurely.

If someone saw them, they would think of the evil knights from legends or fairy tales told by bards.

“Didn’t I tell you? There’s no need to hide it.”

Aum gave a deep smile and looked at the Berserker warriors.

The material was a unique metal produced only in Loki’s Valhalla palace, and all the armor and weapons were made directly by the dwarf Reran.

It would be difficult to obtain equipment made by artisans anywhere on the continent, and even if you did, it would cost an astronomical amount.

There were 100 people fully equipped with such equipment. All of them were Shin-gi [users of divine or mystical energy] users.

If these people became known on the continent, no country would be able to ignore them and would not want to be on bad terms with them.

Aum was aiming for that.

‘The influence of the Holy Order is enough to dominate the continent. Even the emperor of the empire bows his head. But if there is even a small country that actively seeks to protect them, they will not recklessly invade. They will only try to take the initiative.’

And what they want is mostly ‘money.’

Gold and jewels.

In this era, it was a very simple thing that satisfied human desires and was the source of power that moved the continent.

Asgard’s wealth is superior to any other country. So they can protect the woman named ‘Helga’ that Loki is looking for, and it will also help in negotiations with the Order.

“Wights are beings that humans cannot face. But we have the power to kill those things.”

The scariest thing about wights was ‘infection.’

Aum took precautions by having the Berserker warriors wear full-body armor and layering it with monster leather, and distributing extra purification potions and recovery potions to each of them.

Even if they were infected with the Worm Pest [a disease turning people into wights] or driven to the brink of death by wights, they could return to their original state, their best condition, and continue fighting to the end.

Wights were a terrible plague that could shake the continent, so if they could eliminate it….

“If we defeat the wight army, rumors will naturally spread across the continent. If we use that well, even the Holy Order won’t be able to ignore us. Even if they forcibly pressure us as heretics or cultists, other countries won’t support them. Rather, they will build friendships with us and try to escape the oppression of the Holy Order.”

Aum crossed his arms and smiled.

“The Worm Pest is an opportunity for us.”

Kudan gave a bitter smile at Aum’s words.

“…But is it enough to hunt such great monsters with just the Berserker warriors?”

“Enough?”

Aum looked at Kudan as if he was dumbfounded.

“…You alone could handle half of them and still have energy to spare, right?”

“You overestimate me.”

“You’re the guy who broke through the legion of death and swung a hammer at Loki-nim, right?”

What Aum was talking about was the battle with the top-tier undead consisting of Death Knights and Liches [powerful undead spellcasters].

Kudan, who broke through them, would be no match for wights.

However, he was also human, so he would be in danger if exposed to ‘disease.’

“I’ve never faced those wights before. Besides, isn’t it a plague? Even I wouldn’t be able to withstand it if I got infected.”

“Of course not. But you have a purification potion, don’t you? Besides, that….”

Aum pointed to the heavy weapon covered in cloth behind Kudan’s back.

“Wasn’t that bestowed upon you by Loki-nim? I heard it makes your terrifying power even stronger.”

“I haven’t had a chance to use it in actual combat yet….”

Aum smiled at Kudan’s words.

“You worry too much. Besides, our trump card is not just you.”

At Aum’s words, Kudan looked back.

“Hum~ Hum~”

A woman riding a horse at the very back of the procession could be seen.

A woman with blue hair and eyes, wearing elegantly but beautifully designed armor.

Cancun was humming, excited at the thought of meeting Loki.

“We have a priestess who will defeat the forces of evil.”

A priestess who assists Loki of Asgard and a female warrior second only to Kudan. That was Cancun.

“With your and her power, we can defeat them enough.”

“Report!”

While Aum and Kudan were talking, a Berserker warrior who had set out as a scout came running with a horse.

Showing considerable horsemanship, he dismounted and approached Aum, kneeling and speaking in a calm voice.

“Currently, the Harma territory is engaged in battle with the plague army.”

“Huh? They arrived earlier than I thought. But they’re not idiots, so if they just close the castle gates and wait, they can hold out for a few days.”

Aum said as if it was nothing.

They would soon reach the Harma territory. As long as they closed the castle gates tightly and didn’t let them ‘breed,’ there would be no troublesome issues.

As Aum was thinking that, a voice that seemed to stab him in the back of the head was heard.

“And the castle gate has been breached.”

Aum’s eyes widened in surprise.

“…What? Breached? Ah, no, why? Of course, the Harma territory is short on supplies, but if they just defend desperately, they should be able to hold out, right?”

“That’s…they set it on fire.”