Regressor Of The Fallen Family [EN]: Chapter 146

Krooooh! A deep, rumbling sound echoed across the valley.

North of the town of McLane, a part of a rocky mountain suddenly broke apart. Dust and stones fell as the mountain itself seemed to wake up and change shape. Slowly, a giant figure of rock and earth rose – a golem!

Thud. Thud. Each step of the golem was like a giant’s foot hitting the ground. The earth shook, and deep footprints appeared in the green field. The golem was huge, taller than the tallest trees, easily thirty meters high. People working nearby stopped what they were doing and stared, their mouths open in amazement at the incredible sight.

The golem walked powerfully across the field, each step heavy and strong. Then, when it reached a certain patch of flat ground, it stopped and fell down with a loud crash.

Rumble! The sound of falling rock echoed through the air.

A bossy voice shouted, “Well, just about a dozen more times and we’ll have enough earth and stone to build a castle. Keep at it, wizard!”

“Heh. Hee hee hee,” Clayton chuckled.

Clayton laughed loudly, though the dwarf, who barely reached his waist, was taunting him. He had been hearing the same thing for the tenth time already.

The mountain of earth and stone piled before him looked big enough to build a castle, but he knew better than to ignore the words of a dwarf expert.

So, Clayton showed off the stronger power from his special magical item. He uprooted and moved an entire mountain ridge in a single day.

Soon, many people began to rush toward the mountain of earth and stone.

“The Master has a magic item, so why do *we* have to work so hard?” one worker complained.

“They say it’s a treasure beyond price,” another replied.

“So, why are *we* working?” the first one asked again.

“Well, he said he was settling here for our sake, but it feels like we’re working harder than before.”

A sharp voice called out, “Senior brothers! Are you not working?! I’m going to tell Master if you keep this up!!”

Gric and Enan, who had been grumbling, jumped and turned toward the voice.

“Lia?!” Gric exclaimed.

“Oh, when did you get here? Our Lia. Ah. Haha,” Enan said nervously.

Victoria had been with them since the days of the Earth Mana Tower. She was the only one who became the master’s disciple after coming to this territory.

The small girl was loved by the master and all her senior brothers because she was cute and smart.

“I’ve been watching you! I really am going to tell…,” Victoria threatened.

Even when she frowned and put her hands on her hips, she looked lovely. But threatening them by mentioning their master was enough to scare Gric and Enan. Sweating, they pointed to the front.

“W-we’re working! Look! Look! My golem!” Gric stammered.

“Me too! I’m working faster than anyone else!” Enan added.

They looked like they were being treated unfairly. Gric, who was becoming a strong wizard, had a golem over 5m tall shoveling dirt. Enan, who had recently grown stronger, had a golem almost 3m tall carrying dirt.

The golems moved on their own while they talked, showing that they were Clayton’s top disciples.

They knew that if McLane fell, they would be in big trouble. So, they wouldn’t just complain and play around.

But Victoria didn’t care about their excuses.

“Why don’t you use other magic?! The other senior brothers are having a hard time!” she said.

“W-well, you see. It hasn’t been long since we’ve advanced…,” Gric said.

“It’s hard to control the golems…,” Enan added.

“Then what about me?!” Victoria asked, frowning.

Behind her, three golems close to 2m tall were constantly shoveling and moving. This amazing junior sister had been on the battlefield many times and had grown stronger while working on construction. She could use three golems with her limited magic.

‘She used golem magic even when she was a beginner. It’s supposed to be impossible to use it.’

‘She grew up so fast, and she’s already so free…….’

They felt frustrated, but they didn’t want to show weakness.

‘I have my senior title to think of.’

‘I’ll do it too! Do it!’

They gritted their teeth, forgot their complaints, and gathered their magic.

“Earth Wall!” Gric shouted. Blue light flashed from his hands as a thick wall of dirt rose from the ground.

“Solid Ground!” Enan yelled. The ground beneath them hardened instantly.

It was a wonderful joint magic that only senior brothers who had been together for a long time could do.

Their golems, powered by their master’s magic and magic stones, dug the ground and tamped the soil, shaping the walls and stairs.

‘Krooh. S-senior. I almost got my mana twisted…….’

‘M-me too. I can’t breathe.’

They looked at each other, their eyes full of pain.

“H-how is it?” Gric asked.

“W-we’re this good!” Enan said.

They looked back at their young junior sister, their faces full of smiles. They were sweating a lot, but they were trying to act tough.

“See? You can do it if you try!” Victoria said, giving them a thumbs up.

“Can you keep doing this? How long can you do it? Once an hour? Once every two hours?” she asked.

“W-well, we, we can do it!” Gric said.

“If we put our minds to it, we can use it once every 30 minutes…,” Enan added.

“What, you madman?” Gric glared at Enan.

Enan smiled awkwardly, his face turning blue.

“Yes. I’ll report that to Master!” Victoria said cheerfully, turning around.

Gric grabbed Enan by the collar and shook him.

“You madman, there are things you can say and things you can’t…,” Gric shouted.

“S-senior. Th-that was a slip of the tongue……. Ack! I said I was wrong! Senior, you’ve gone mad……,” Enan cried.

Victoria listened to Enan’s screams and apologized in her heart.

‘I’m sorry, senior,’ she thought.

But Victoria couldn’t help it.

– I hope your talent will encourage the other guys.

– I only recently realized that our magic grows the more we use it and the more we challenge our limits. So you…….

Her master had asked her to do this, and even if he hadn’t…

‘Faster! We have to complete it stronger. That’s the only way the territory will live,’ she thought.

She had to save McLane, which was now her and her brother’s hometown. That desperate feeling pushed her to break her limits and grow her magic.

To Victoria, the sight of the fortress slowly taking shape still seemed too slow.

“Truth, what do you think you’re doing!” Lia’s voice was sharp with worry.

“L-Lia! Oh, hello. I was just a little tired,” Truth stammered, wiping sweat from his forehead. But Lia didn’t look convinced.

He knew he was pushing the senior wizards too hard, trying to squeeze every last drop of magic from them.

Seeing Truth flustered, Lia sighed deeply. “Master is busy,” she muttered, thinking of their powerful leader far away, focused on controlling many golems.

Victoria, another young wizard, was carefully watching the senior wizards. She needed to know how much magic each of them could use before they became too tired. ‘Senior Truth is a 2-circle master. He can cast an Earth Wall spell once an hour before needing to rest,’ she thought, making a note. She visited each senior wizard regularly, checking their condition.

Each time Victoria checked, the senior wizards looked more exhausted, with darker circles under their eyes. But their hard work was paying off. The fortress, called Saturn, was growing taller and stronger every day.

McLane Keep was built to defend against monsters from the southern mountain range, so it faced mostly south.

This meant the open field to the north of McLane Keep, the area where enemies could approach McLane Town, was over ten kilometers wide.

That was more than enough space to go around McLane Keep and attack the town directly.

In the middle of the eastern field, leading into the new McLane Plain, something amazing had been built.

Eleven wizards, over ten thousand soldiers, and a huge amount of money had been used to create a miracle in just one week.

“We did it!”

“I can’t believe something like this is possible!”

Cheers echoed across the field, like the shouts of a victorious army returning home.

They had accomplished something nearly impossible. The fortress was so huge that no one would believe it had been built in a week. It stood strong in the middle of the field.

Amidst the cheers, Clayton, his face pale with exhaustion but a proud smile playing on his lips, reported the results to Logan.

“The walls are round, five kilometers across, and very thick – fifty meters! We didn’t build anything inside the walls to make them as strong as possible. The walls on top are high, with openings for soldiers to shoot. There are three levels of these openings, with stairs and supports on each level. Soldiers can attack enemies outside from any of these levels.”

Logan nodded. It was a wall built carefully for its purpose.

“Like at the siege of Tomodo, the outside walls are smooth and hard to climb. We covered them with a special oil that makes them hard to burn, so knights can’t climb them easily.”

Heuh, I told them to do it, but this is more than I expected…….

“We built a deep ditch around the outside, like at Tomodo. We even used water from the dam. The gates are very strong and can only be opened from the inside with magic. They are stronger than normal gates.”

Logan’s mouth widened as he listened.

“Hamar and the dwarves from the workshop designed and built it. I, my students, and the local soldiers who will fight here all worked on it.”

“Heh…….”

“Is something not to your liking?” Clayton asked.

“Not at all. I’m just surprised because it’s more impressive than I thought,” Logan replied.

Clayton, his face tired, sighed in relief. It was worth all the sleepless nights and hard work.

“You’ve built a fortress even greater than McLane Keep in just a week. I don’t need to worry about how strong it is, right?” Logan asked.

“We used all the magic stones you gave us and used magic. The walls will definitely not fall down for at least three months,” Clayton assured him.

“Excellent. Excellent. It cost a lot of money, but if I had known it would turn out this well, I would have made it bigger and stronger… Yes, I know this is the best we could do. Don’t look at me like that. I’m just joking,” Logan said.

I really can’t do any more, even if you beat me to death.

Clayton’s eyes told Logan everything.

“Either way, both sides will arrive within a week now,” Logan said.

If we had more time, were you really going to make me do it again!

Clayton tried not to shout and asked a practical question. “But can you really stop them? Can you win? It’s practically half the kingdom’s forces.”

“It’s possible. We have weapons they don’t,” Logan replied.

Those weapons and supplies were already inside Saturn.

They had many repeating crossbows and cost-effective bombs called Liberatio, which had never been used before.

Those two weapons gave them confidence.

However…

“What if the enemies keep attacking and retreating outside our range, making us waste our supplies?” Clayton asked.

“Huh?”

“Once we run out of crossbow bolts and Liberatio, we’ll only have about 20,000 mostly untrained people,” Clayton pointed out.

Clayton asked Logan about the worry that many people had.

It was a good question.

Whether the enemies would do that from the start, or only after being defeated a few times, it was likely to happen.

‘I don’t think they’ll want to attack us at any cost.’

Logan’s answer was simple. “Ah, of course, we have to end the war before that happens.”

Do you mean to send the local soldiers to attack the enemies after building the fortress? They’ll all die!!

Clayton wanted to shout.

“Just hold on. If you just hold on, I will end the war,” Logan repeated.

Almost a year ago, he had heard a similar story on the battlefield of Tomodo.

That’s why it was so unsettling.

Gulp.

“You really have a plan this time, right?” Clayton asked.

“…Of course,” Logan replied.

Why is that pause so unsettling?

But Clayton didn’t ask any more questions.

No, he couldn’t. He was afraid that if he forced Logan to answer, he would lose all his courage.

He laughed sadly.

‘I’ve become a McLane person without even realizing it.’

He wondered when he had changed so much, but it was obvious.

He held the Staff of Atlan, a treasure of the Wind Magic Tower.

He had a very talented student here.

His students were growing stronger after constantly trying to do impossible things.

To keep all of this, he had to protect McLane.

‘This place is my home now.’

He didn’t know it, but he clenched his fist, thinking the same thing that his youngest student had thought a few days ago.

And not many days after that, the McLane territory was about to face a huge army.