Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 64

64.

At dawn, I discreetly slipped out of the headquarters.

David was by my side, followed by a hundred knights behind me.

We rode with the wind until sunrise, and before long, the western forest came into view in the distance.

Standing on a hill, the vast forest was visible at a glance. The forest, so wide that its end couldn’t be seen, painted the horizon’s boundary with green.

I exhaled a white breath and said,

“Impressive.”

The western forest, seen in person, displayed the grandeur of nature to such an extent that words seemed inadequate to describe it.

David agreed with me.

“I’ve only heard about it, but seeing it in person… it truly is a sea of trees. There’s no end in sight.”

“Beyond that forest lies a desert, and beyond that desert, across the sea, is the Western Continent, right?”

“Yes. But the existence of the Western Continent is only mentioned in ancient texts, and no one has ever been there. Ancient texts say that there are people there who use completely different swordsmanship and sorcery from here.”

David spoke as if it were a legend, but I knew that information was true.

‘The family’s techniques, the Mind Arts, and concepts like mana breathing are all derived from martial arts. And the Western Continent is essentially a martial arts world. Karen even gained opportunities there.’

I realized once again how many different elements were crammed into a single novel.

‘It deserved the criticism for being cluttered. They literally used every trick to make the protagonist strong…’

Now that the Calpeon Empire has become a reality, many of those elements have been quite helpful to me.

“The Western Forest is currently inhabited by fairies, so even entering it is difficult.”

The Empire couldn’t advance further west. There were small-scale kingdoms in the southern part of the Western Forest, but they weren’t significant enough for my father to covet.

They were countries that would naturally be absorbed into the Empire because they were already under the influence of the western lords.

I stroked Zephyr’s mane and said,

“If we don’t venture too deep into the Western Forest, we won’t provoke the fairies. Let’s set our course in that direction for now. We need to approach the southern part of the Dark Forest by passing through the Western Forest.”

David nodded.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I added one more thing.

“Let’s get to know the knights around lunchtime. They volunteered for a life-threatening mission… and since there’s a high probability that they won’t return alive, we should at least know who each other are.”

“Yes. I will let them know.”

I watched David turn to the knights to speak, then climbed back onto Zephyr.

As I slowly descended the hill, I took out a map and examined it.

‘If it weren’t for David… I wouldn’t even be able to find my way. It’s not like we live in an era with GPS [Global Positioning System] or navigation systems.’

Soon, David finished relaying my orders and approached me.

“Let’s go.”

At my words, David also glanced at the map before setting off.

I followed David, lost in thought.

‘Only one month left.’

I checked my status window.

The quest to rescue Gale was a time-limited quest.

There was a reason why the difficulty was so high.

If I failed to rescue him within a month, the quest would fail, and of course, I couldn’t guarantee Gale’s safety.

‘He’d probably die…’

If Gale died, it wouldn’t just be a simple quest failure; it would definitely have a significant impact on my future actions.

It’s hard to find a knight like Gale, and it’s safe to say that there’s no knight with the same loyalty as him.

“Your Highness.”

I gathered my thoughts at the voice from behind and turned my head.

It was Riorden.

A strange light flashed in David’s eyes.

Riorden was one of the candidates for winning the evaluation competition, and like David, he was a mercenary.

David did not hide his competitive spirit.

‘Come to think of it, David came to the capital for the evaluation competition.’

Thanks to my plan, David’s future was completely changed.

And it wasn’t just David.

Ken’s fate was also changed, as well as his sister, Soris, and the Shadow Walkers Guild.

Riorden was different from those people.

‘Even the people I didn’t directly use are living their lives.’

I took a breath and said,

“What’s the matter?”

“I heard that you were going to meet the knights who participated in the operation individually.”

I nodded at Riorden’s deep voice.

“Yes. I was going to slowly get to know them over lunch. It’s not easy to volunteer for such an operation.”

I thought there would be deserters among the evaluation competition participants, but not a single one deserted, and all participated in the operation.

Riorden was the same.

Moreover, he was a talented person that my father had also noticed, and I felt that he wanted to win the evaluation competition more than anyone else.

“Anyway, thank you for participating in this dangerous operation. And I’m saying this now, but I was impressed in the competition. It was fun just being able to fight against a strong person like you.”

“I will not make excuses for my defeat. It’s just that Your Highness’s skills were better than mine.”

Riorden chuckled and added.

“If it had been a battlefield instead of a competition, I would have died. I’ve lived on the battlefield my whole life… fighting on stage wasn’t a bad experience either.”

I asked, as if trying to see through him,

“Did you want to become my direct knight because you lost to me? Weren’t you originally participating in the evaluation competition because you wanted to receive my father’s teachings?”

Riorden shook his head.

“I never intended to receive His Majesty’s teachings in the first place.”

What is this now?

I widened my eyes at Riorden’s unexpected answer.

* * *

‘It’s going to be hard to return alive.’

Gale swallowed his despair as he looked at the disgustingly large number of orcs.

Hundreds of orcs were being born every day.

The orcs here were different from ordinary orcs.

They were warriors from birth.

The way they stood up on two feet and wielded crude weapons made it hard to believe that they were newly born orcs.

Fortunately, while hundreds of orcs were being born, many orcs were also being eaten by their own kind.

If the orcs hadn’t been eating each other, tens of thousands of orcs would have completely taken over the southern part of the Dark Forest.

‘Is it… meaningless now?’

Gale smiled bitterly as he looked at his tied arms.

His situation, lying there like pork in a butcher shop, didn’t seem much different from the orcs being born and eaten.

“Damn it, when are we getting out of here?”

“I don’t know.”

“There’s a lot of human meat outside.”

“The King told us to wait.”

Gale narrowed his eyes as he listened to the orcs’ words.

Certainly, the orcs under the Orc King were different.

They used the common language of the continent, and their pronunciation was as good as humans, making it very easy to understand.

“Humans are swarming. There will be a festival soon.”

At those words, Gale guessed.

‘The western lords must be gathering.’

“We don’t have to watch that guy anymore, do we? Let’s eat some of the tender ones born today.”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

Gale took a deep breath as he saw dozens of orcs, who were guarding him deep in the main camp of the Dark Forest Orc Legion, leaving in droves.

He desperately tried to summon mana, but soon writhed in extreme pain from the mana hole [a location in the body where mana is stored and circulated] affliction.

It was a powerful magic that was hard to believe was at the level of an orc shaman [a priest or witch doctor in some cultures].

‘The biggest problem is that mana is slowly being sucked away.’

The mana firmly established in the mana hole was decreasing day by day.

The process was so natural that it seemed as if the mana was returning to where it originally belonged.

‘Mana that is not accumulated in the mana hole naturally dissipates. But for mana that has taken root in the mana hole to be drawn out without any pain or trace… it must be black magic.’

Is the Orc King even using black magic?

Gale continued to ponder, but no clear answer emerged.

Bang-! Bang-!

At that moment, rough sounds were heard from outside.

It was a terrible sound of orcs’ heads exploding.

The being that opened the huge stone door and entered was much larger than the other orcs.

His height, easily exceeding 4 meters [approximately 13 feet], and his burly muscles made his size look even more imposing.

His fierce eyes made one’s legs tremble.

Even Gale, who was on the verge of reaching the master’s realm, flinched at the bloodlust that the orc naturally emitted.

‘Oh my god, it’s Piera.’

Gale opened his mouth.

“You’ve been holding out for quite a while.”

The giant orc who spoke had slightly different skin from the other orcs.

Warrior-type orcs have much darker green skin than ordinary orcs, and the darker the color, the stronger and more ferocious they are.

Orc shamans are characterized by a slightly bent back and carry staffs decorated with strange skulls.

The giant orc’s skin was close to blue.

And the orc shaman who answered from the side also had his back bent at almost 90 degrees and wore a necklace with skulls not only on his staff but also around his neck.

“He is quite a strong human. If we absorb all of this guy’s mana, Ghoran-nim [a title of respect] will open his eyes.”

“Ghoran-nim, who will make me king and allow me to reclaim the continent taken from the humans, must be resurrected.”

The orc shaman’s voice was mixed with a nasal tone.

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Gale was surprised that the orc in front of him was a king, but he was even more shocked by the meaning of the two orcs’ conversation.

‘If he gave birth to such an existence… he’s not just a simple black magician.’

A disaster has struck the continent.

He was the leader who would taint not only the Empire but the entire continent with evil.

‘I must get out of here. Fortunately, these guys don’t intend to kill me right away.’

The Orc King opened his mouth again.

“Clearly warn the guards that if they leave their posts one more time, I will not kill them easily.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Orc King approached Gale.

“Human, don’t have any hope.”

Gale chuckled at the words directed at him.

“An orc’s advice. Hard to believe.”

A smile spread across the Orc King’s face.

The smile on his ferocious face contained a deep bloodlust.

“Soon your world will end. This forest, as well as the vast territory taken by the fairies, and the fertile continent you occupy, are all my land.”

Gale didn’t bother to answer the Orc King.

It was no use talking to him, and there was nothing to gain from arguing with an orc.

The Orc King soon turned and left.

The outside became noisy.

‘Other guards must be coming in. Can I really get out of here?’

No matter how hard he tried not to despair, the despair before his eyes was approaching rapidly.

Like the Orc King said, having hope itself was torture.

‘Am I going to die like this? The Lord’s last words…’

Gale thought of Arune even as he was dying.

He was sad that he had not properly kept the last words of Iriel, who was his only lord.

At that moment, the rock wall on which Gale was hung trembled.

Gale was startled and turned his head when he felt the powder of the rock wall falling on his arm.

Soon, a round hole appeared, and a person’s face popped out.

“Wow, I thought I was going to die…”

The voice could not continue.

The stone door opened again, and orcs appeared.

“We can eat the ones who were here before.”

“If we just stay here without going out, meat will fall; those guys are fools.”

Dozens of orcs took their places and began to tear apart the corpses of their own kind.

And Gale heard a voice again in his ear.

“Mister, are you trapped?”

Gale couldn’t say anything.

Could it be that hope is rising from an unbelievable place?

“I’m Karen… Wow, I thought I was just going back with a sword, but I never dreamed I’d see someone here.”