The 9Th Class Swordmaster: Blade Of Truth [EN]: Chapter 314

209. The Rise of the North (1)

“My lord, you’ve changed.”

Aidan was the first to speak to Carryl as he descended beneath the Eternal Ice.

“Is that so?”

Just standing close, he occasionally felt a tingling sensation on his skin.

‘What on earth could have happened?’

Even as the assassin closest to death, Aidan felt as though Carryl was so submerged that he couldn’t sense any vitality from him.

“Imperial army?”

Carryl asked nonchalantly.

“How did you know?”

Hasil asked, looking at him.

“It’s not exactly surprising. Hasil, attach this and send a messenger hawk. It should reach them by now.”

“Understood.”

Hasil looked at the red attribute stone Carryl handed him, puzzled but not bothering to ask.

‘When did he prepare this…’

Suddenly, Aidan’s earlier words came to mind.

They shouldn’t judge him by their standards.

His worries were nothing more than needless fretting to someone who already saw several moves ahead.

“I’ll stop the Imperial army. Instead, you all have separate tasks. Liliana, when you go down, tell Hwarin what I said.”

“What should I say?”

“The time has come.”

At Carryl’s words, the people there couldn’t help but let out a low exclamation.

“Patun, Kuntahi. You two are to gather the foreign tribes fighting the Imperial army in one place. Now, the foreign tribes will no longer be separate but united under the name of the Great Warrior.”

“We obey.”

“Let’s go.”

The two bowed to Carryl and left with the tribe member who had brought the news.

“How was the achievement?”

“Well, we’ll know when we check. It’s a good thing a suitable opponent came on their own accord.”

Carryl gave a low smile at Aidan’s question.

“The Green Knights… I thought the Blue Knights would come. Oliver must be in a hurry to dispatch the knights from Piasta.”

Normally, the closest knights to the North would be the Blue Knights.

The reason he sent the Green Knights instead of the Blue Knights to the North was simple.

He wanted to keep Kwell McGovern by his side.

‘Such petty tricks are just like the Emperor.’

In the past, during the process of judging the First Prince Ruon and investigating Baron Rage’s secret ledger in Piasta, the Emperor had also ordered the Green Knights, not the Blue Knights.

He, too, was preventing the Emperor from giving power to Oliver, but Oliver was using them for his own safety.

‘Gahel must be suffering one way or another. He’s always cleaning up after every incident.’

Carryl smiled bitterly, thinking of the commander of the Green Knights.

“Well, the cleanup will be the last, though.”

He slowly opened his palm and clenched his fist, saying.

Crackle… Crackle…

At that moment, a strange silver-gray light, never seen before, gathered and disappeared from his fist.

* * *

“Attack!!!”

An unyielding cry was heard through the blizzard of the North.

Waaaaaaah――!!

Waaaah――!

A giant knight at the head swung his warhammer in a circle above his head and shouted with all his might.

Gahel the Furious.

True to his epithet as the commander of the Green Knights, the massive warhammer roared as if to crush everything in its path.

The knights at the head began to run.

Their armor was a clear, bluish-green, but Gahel’s warhammer alone was rusted to the point of being almost red.

It was because the blood of the enemy was so stuck that it had changed.

Green.

Same name, but different meaning.

At least for Gahel, the Green Knights probably symbolized not the color of the armor but the amount of blood of those he had crushed.

“Carry out His Majesty’s orders! Annihilate the filthy barbarians and bring stability to the Empire!!”

An unexpected surprise attack.

A wave of green began to race through the blizzard of the North, and soldiers followed behind, weapons in hand.

“Crazy bastards. Do they know where they are… !”

“Why at a time like this…!!”

However, the foreign tribes guarding the entrance to the North, who seemed like they would be thrown into chaos, calmly drew their arrows from the watchtowers all at once.

Swish――! Swish swish――!!

Although the arrows were without magic, their sharp attacks accurately pierced through the gaps in the soldiers’ armor.

“Aaaagh!!”

“Uwaaaagh――!!”

Imperial soldiers screamed and fell, but the Green Knights ran on regardless.

Thud!!!

Gahel’s warhammer at the very front struck the pillar of the watchtower, and with a cracking sound, one side collapsed.

“Ugh?!

“Aaaagh…!!”

Along with the collapsing watchtower, the foreign soldiers fell straight to the ground.

The mountainous terrain of the North was certainly rugged, but unfortunately, it was not a great danger to the knights with magic, and the wooden fences set up by the foreign tribes were too flimsy to stop the knights.

“Occupy the summit!!”

Led by the Green Knights who had come deep inside, the Imperial army began to destroy the watchtowers one by one.

“Look at that. There must be tens of thousands.”

“Tch, a huge number…”

“When did they start preparing?”

“They’re attacking as if they were waiting for our lord to head to the North.”

The chieftains said, looking at the Imperial army pouring in like a tide, their teeth chattering.

“There’s no need to wait for the main force!! We will end the Second Edict of Heresy Extermination ourselves!!”

Hwarin frowned slightly at Gahel’s cry from below and bit her lip.

“We can’t let them enter the North any further. I’ll go out.”

“Don’t. Your body hasn’t recovered yet. I’ll take the lead.”

The chieftain of the Iron Tribe said, stopping Hwarin as she staggered to her feet.

“We’ll buy time. That number can’t be stopped even with the poison of the Jannabi [a poisonous creature]. It’s not that we’re weak, it’s just that there are too many of them.”

The chieftain took his hammer and slowly walked down, shouting.

“Attack!!!”

At his cry, the foreign tribesmen took up their weapons all at once.

“Kill all the dirty bastards!!!”

However, compared to the Imperial army, the number of troops following him was insignificant.

“We’ll go too. The timing just wasn’t good. The biggest weakness of the foreign tribes was that they couldn’t be united under one chieftain.”

“We had expectations for Kaliark, but he failed as well. I thought we could rely on him again… The Empire isn’t going to give us a chance.”

“But we can’t lose easily.”

The three heads of the Thunder Clan also took up their respective weapons and began to follow the Iron Tribe.

“At most, there are only a few thousand!! Fight back!!”

Gahel scoffed as he looked at the foreign tribes attacking from both sides and shouted.

Crack!!!

It was then.

Gahel’s head, which had been blowing away the wooden fences and mercilessly destroying the watchtowers, swinging his magic-filled warhammer and shouting, shook violently and slammed backward.

“Cough… !”

With a dying scream, his body fell to the snow floor, and someone pressed down on his face as he hurriedly tried to get back up.

“Oop… !! Oop…!!”

The soldiers of the Iron Tribe and the Thunder Clan, who had been willing to risk death and jump into the tens of thousands of Imperial troops, stopped in their tracks with bewildered expressions.

The running Green Knights also stopped their advance and looked at the fallen Gahel.

“Commander!!!”

The knight next to him shouted in a desperate voice.

Slash……!!

Thud―

However, the knight’s head, which had been running until just now, spun around in the sky and fell to the ground.

Drip…… Drip…….

Fssss……!

Blood gushed out from the severed neck, and the remaining knight’s body trembled as it tried to draw its sword, then collapsed to the floor.

“You guys.”

The soldiers of the Iron Tribe and the Thunder Clan swallowed hard, trembling at that short word.

Szzk……. Szzzzk……!

‘What is that?’

As the man standing on Gahel turned his head, flashes of light seemed to flicker and disappear in his black eyes.

“Is the numerical inferiority the reason for defeat?”

A low voice.

Swoosh― Clang!!!

At the same time, the drawn sword emitted magic, and the limbs of the knights around him were torn to pieces.

“The monster has become more of a monster…”

Hwarin muttered, bursting into a hollow laugh without realizing it, seeing the sight.

“He’s not a monster.”

Hasil’s voice was heard from behind her. And Liliana was standing there with an awkward face.

“What on earth happened in the Eternal Ice?”

“I don’t know either. But what’s clear is that the true Great Warrior we’ve been hoping for has appeared.”

“It is his message.”

Liliana simply knelt and said to Hwarin.

“The time has come.”

“……!!”

At that moment, Carryl, standing in front of tens of thousands of enemies, spoke to the Iron Tribe and the Thunder Clan as if telling them to look at him.

“I’ll eliminate any room for excuses.”

Beeeeeeep―――!!!!

As Carryl reached out his hand, Hasil bent over and shot an arrow into the sky.

‘What’s that?’

Hwarin remembered that an arrow emitting such light had flown by just a moment ago.

“Did you fire that? Hasil.”

“That’s right.”

“Why?”

“You’ll know when you see it. I’m just following orders as well.”

The attribute stone attached to the arrowhead burned, emitting a sharp sound and a red light as it flew in a trajectory.

Waaaaaaahhhhh―――!!!!

It was then.

Another shout was heard from below the hill in the North.

The foreign tribes were bewildered by the successive sounds, and even the Imperial soldiers who were attacking were equally embarrassed.

“Wh, what’s going on?!

“What on earth is it?”

The moment their questions were intertwined,

Other black figures surrounding them appeared.

‘……When on earth?’

Even though it was in the midst of a fierce battle, the strong ones had not been able to sense their presence until they were so close.

Hwarin’s eyes shook as if she couldn’t believe it.

“Damn it, it’s so cold.”

A neurotic voice pierced the soldiers’ ears.

“It’s on a different level than the South. People live here? I wouldn’t be able to live here for a day.”

The Imperial army couldn’t help but be shocked at the voice of a woman walking leisurely through the soldiers, arms crossed.

“D, Digon tribe?!

“No way…!!”

“Why are they in the South here!”

Murmurs were heard here and there.

“How can they arrive in the North just like us? You… ! What kind of trick did you play!”

Gahel, who had fallen to the floor, shouted as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Cough!!”

Carryl pressed down on his cheek.

‘Wh, what power…!!’

Gahel, who possessed strength that was second to none in the Empire, couldn’t believe that he was in a situation where he couldn’t move at all from a boy who was much smaller than him.

“What trick? It’s obvious that Oliver would aim for the North. He must have attacked the North first instead of me, who would be burdensome to wage a full-scale war against. Even a three-year-old can think of that.”

“Kuh, Keuh… !”

“There’s no need to be surprised. In the first place, even before you headed to the North, the barbarians were already working hard to come here.”

Aidan, who was the only one who knew about Digon’s movements because he had gone to the Istria Three Kingdoms, chuckled at Carryl’s words.

“The Second Edict of Heresy Extermination? Did Oliver say that?”

“Y, you!”

Gahel, who had fallen to the floor, struggled with his face pressed down.

“That order.”

Carryl lowered his waist, rested his arm on one knee, and looked down at him head-on, pressing down on him once again.

“Now you’ll have to correct it.”

Swish―

Carryl said quietly.

“From now on, I will issue the Imperial Extermination Order.”