The Rebirth Of The Hero’S Party’S Archmage [EN]: Chapter 111

The Reincarnated Archmage of the Warrior Party – Episode 111 (111/280)

Episode 111

Authentic Warrior Enuel Yere Sharilion.

The fifth warrior of the Holy Elmine Knights and the swordmaster of the True Holy Sword Sharilion.

The True Holy Swords wielded by the Authentic Warriors possessed omnipotent power, and tales are told of their slashes splitting mountains, tearing the sky, and parting the seas.

For reference, the True Holy Swords are legendary treasures that serve as the prototypes for all Holy Swords currently used by the PayWarriors. Unfortunately, aside from the Elmine Knights, no other human has wielded these swords.

Among the five warriors, Enuel, recorded as wielding ultimate power, appears from the middle of 『Heroic Sagas』, which details the ‘Tarhe Rondel War,’ and continues until the epilogue.

“And I knew about the assault team that Enuel commanded… but I thought it was annihilated before the final battle.”

“It was not annihilated. They survived and left descendants like this. They followed him, ready to die, but he saved our ancestors and died alone…”

In the late stages of the war, as the Lords of the Deep Sea, the Lord of Worms, the Lizard Lord, and the Lord of Time among the were sealed one after another, the Spider Lord, outnumbered, began a siege in this old capital of Harbardonia.

The Mountains of Madness were like a natural fortress for the Spider Lord.

The abyss that covered Harbardonia was overwhelmingly more powerful than it is now. Ordinary people would be corrupted into the dead as soon as they set foot in it, so ordinary troops could not be dispatched.

The ancestors of the beastmen, who had gathered around Enuel one by one from the middle of the war and formed a unit called the assault team, could not advance before that overwhelming abyss either.

Therefore, Telsia, the leader of the [a group of powerful mages or beings], tried to head to the Mountains of Madness with only Alcaeus and Enuel, survivors of the Elmine Knights, but…

“Our ancestors wanted to follow Enuel-nim [a term of respect] until the end. So they pleaded to the gods. To allow us to go too…”

“…So, like this?”

“Yes. Eventually, the Black Sun Karenden bestowed blessings upon our ancestors. The bodies of beasts that can fight freely even in this extreme empire, and a strong spirit that will not be eroded by any abyss.”

As a result, they lost their human forms, but no one regretted it later.

Everyone held the pride of being Enuel’s assault team and marched north following their master.

“It was written that brave people like beasts followed the last warriors… are you saying that was referring to the beastmen?!

“Yes. They are our ancestors.”

After an endless bloody battle, Enuel, who had occupied the fortress of the mountain range, deliberately dispersed the assault team around the area and then went up to the summit with Alcaeus to defeat and seal the Spider Lord.

In the process, the chief warrior Alcaeus died, and the last warrior Enuel, who had stabbed his sword into the heart of the Spider Lord, is said to have died in Telsia’s arms.

If he had led the assault team up, he might have survived by using them as shields. But Enuel did not.

“In the echoes of our ancestors weeping and beating the ground, dawn finally broke in the world, and the age of the abyss ended.”

“…”

“When the still resided in the world, when the was built on the border of Harbardonia, our ancestors could have returned to their human bodies, but they did not.”

“Why?”

“To remain in this land of the abyss and protect the seal created with his blood. Therefore, this form is the loyalty and pride that our clan has offered to Enuel-nim for generations.”

As Chief Beduel finished his story, a faint silence filled the tent.

It was hard to see it as a lie because I felt that the gaps in information that I had to question while reading books about the age of the gods had now been perfectly filled.

And above all… don’t I know better than anyone else in this era what those left behind can do for those who have left?

“What was it like?”

“What do you mean, what was it like?”

“Enuel wouldn’t have known about their loyalty, since he had already died… but knowing that, what was it like to keep that loyalty?”

I felt disgusted with myself for asking such a selfish question even at this moment, and a bitter smile appeared.

This was a question for me.

It was a question that I was left alone in a world where all my colleagues had disappeared, and I could never find the answer. So I didn’t expect an answer.

“Child, we have a saying that funerals are not for the departed, but for those who are left behind.”

“For those who are left behind…?”

“Think about what this means for yourself. And why don’t you know? How do you know what will happen in this world full of divine miracles? What if Enuel-nim returns thanks to the grace of the gods and learns about the actions of our ancestors?”

At that question, my heart ached as if I had been stabbed by a sword.

“He might curse us for being fools, but deep down, wouldn’t he be proud, saying, ‘They’re still my men’?”

“…”

“Thinking about that gives us strength. We do too. When I was young, I used to imagine the moment when I would explain the lives of our ancestors to the returned Enuel-nim.”

In a pain that I couldn’t tell whether it was sadness or joy, my head naturally bowed.

Was that so?

Did those guys do that too?

Did they dream such happy dreams while waiting for me, who promised to return… just like I’m dreaming while looking back on your lives now.

I felt something solid that had been hardened somewhere deep in my heart breaking down, melting, and forming into tears.

Since returning to this world, there was no one who could ask this question so seriously. No one who could answer honestly.

Beduel in front of me was not my colleague, but it felt as if those fools were hugging my back and saying those words, and my heart kept feeling unbearably heavy.

“Thank you for telling me…”

Barlzen could only stare at the boy in disbelief and embarrassment, because…

This was the first time that someone had listened to their story so seriously and even shed tears.

For a moment, he felt his heart throbbing, but he shook his head firmly and steeled his mind.

“Hmph, stop pretending to shed tears. It’s all over now anyway.”

“…?”

“The years of keeping loyalty are over. You should have treated us well when we were doing well. Now, all that’s left is to kill each other.”

What on earth does that mean…? As the boy quickly wiped away his tears and raised his head, Chief Beduel sighed deeply.

“There is a war looming over this land. We have repeatedly warned the wolves that the Spider Lord’s seal is gradually weakening, but…”

“Those bastards didn’t listen.”

“How is that possible? There’s no way the Light Dragon wouldn’t know…”

“This is the land of the abyss, so the Light Dragon’s eyes can’t reach it.”

As if not giving me time to be shocked by the chief’s words, Barlzen rattled off shocking words one after another.

“Anyway, those guys treat us like beasts and don’t listen to us. We can’t maintain the seal anymore.”

“Does that mean…?”

“The Spider Lord, or his subordinates, are about to be released. You can tell by the ancient beings leading the blizzard.”

That’s different from when the Lizard Lord’s seal was broken 300 years ago. That was when black magicians forcibly released it, but this is…

“How, shouldn’t we stop it? If we leave it like this, something really big will happen?”

“Tch, if we could stop it, would we be beastmen instead of warriors? We can’t stop it with our strength. So we have no choice but to escape under the wall.”

“But as far as I know, the White Wolves are blocking the beastmen from passing through the wall.”

“Even if the fake wolves act up, we can just break through by force.”

Rain stared blankly at Barlzen.

It wasn’t because he didn’t know what that meant. He was wondering if Barlzen knew what kind of situation the words he had just uttered would lead to, and the weight of that action.

However, the chief, interpreting the meaning of the boy’s gaze as the former, said in a sighing voice.

“Lalquen’s son, Gryphon, is gathering all the tribes. To break down the wall and go down below.”

* * *

The abyss has the property of eroding the world. Even a speck of abyss, if left unattended, will eventually grow to devour the entire world.

The was built by the White Dragon Corps under the guidance of the gods to block the expansion of such an abyss.

Perhaps even the gods could not completely purify Harbardonia, the former headquarters of the abyss, so they built a wall of light on its border to block the threat of the abyss to the civilized world.

‘To tear down such a place…’

Could this situation be seen as a harbinger of destruction? I couldn’t understand how the situation had come to this.

In this situation where the Light Dragon Haraderiman and the Water Dragon Yeriserika have their eyes wide open, and even Alakish, a True Dragon, has been dispatched here.

「Until about five hundred years ago, there were no problems. But from some point after that, the White Wolves wouldn’t even listen to me.」

With contact with the Light Dragon and the Water Dragon cut off, Alakish has been taking care of the beastmen and monitoring the abyss here, waiting only for the call of the Fire Dragon.

He didn’t say it, but it can’t be helped that there is a slight problem with Alakish’s stubbornly sincere personality.

If he had sensed such a serious anomaly, he should have urged and condemned the wolves of the wall and immediately reported it to the Divine Dragons.

‘The Yellow Dragons like Yoshhar do this so well…’

The Red Dragon Corps is like a martial artist in human terms, and they all tend to be taciturn and faithfully perform their given tasks.

That has been an advantage for a long time, but here it is acting so badly…

I had an ominous feeling.

I had the delusion that this situation, this situation that had reached this extreme, had been designed by someone over a long period of time.

‘After turning the beastmen’s heroic tales into educational stories, they slowly spread the story that beastmen are really cursed creatures… They separate humans and beastmen and amplify the conflict until a war breaks out.’

And to prevent the Light Dragon and the Water Dragon from seeing the north, they cause big and small accidents on the continent. This could be called a diversionary tactic.

If this is really their plan, and all situations are going according to their intentions…

Suddenly, the destruction of the world that Karenden had shown me came to mind. And the words he said to me too.

“Our village is also preparing to join Gryphon. We’ll be leaving in ten days.”

If the wall collapses, the destruction of the world will be accelerated. And the beastmen turning into enemies is also fatal to humanity.

We must not let everything go according to the black magicians’ plan.

I tried to justify my actions by endlessly recalling these calculated calculations, but in fact, my true feelings were embarrassingly simple.

“Could you help me resolve this issue smoothly?”

I want to help.

I just want to help.

I may have seen the shadows of my warrior party colleagues in them, or I may have felt presumptuous kinship with the warrior Enuel, but…

“What did you say now?”

If you want me to just say the conclusion without adding any rambling, as I said before, I just want to help.

“The chief said that you have kept your loyalty because Enuel might return. But how would you feel if you heard that the beastmen had torn down the wall?”

“That’s… but I have a duty to protect the families of the village. I can’t hold out any longer. If we stay here, we’ll just be devoured by the abyss.”

“So, the conclusion is that we just need to get over the wall, right?”

“Damn it! If it were that easy, who would be doing this now! This is not something a kid like you can resolve smoothly!”

Waiting for Barlzen to get angry, I immediately put my hand on my chest and said confidently. It’s time to use the noble status that was so annoying.

“I am a fairly high-ranking nobleman in the empire. The White Wolf Corps might listen to me if I say so.”

“You’re kidding me! Would those guys listen to a kid like you? Are you the emperor’s son or something?”

“Well, they might not listen to me, but it’s different if that person steps in.”

“Who is that kid again?”

“That person is the young lady of the Page family, who has authority comparable to that of a prince-elector [a powerful noble with the right to elect the emperor]. She is a descendant of the progenitor of magic.”

At that shocking statement, the chief and Barlzen turned to Kasena with surprised eyes.

“The progenitor of magic… Emitessa?”

“The one the Black Sun cherished like a daughter…?”

As expected, the name of Emitessa, who was in charge of one axis of ancient legends, seemed to be widely spread even among the beastmen.

For reference, Emitessa and Enuel were contemporaries. The scale and battlefield of their activities were clearly different, but still (Emitessa was a young girl during the Tarhe Rondel War).

Did they feel a sense of kinship from having such great figures as their supporters? The wariness in Barlzen’s eyes had noticeably disappeared.

“If the door is opened peacefully, there’s no need to tear down the wall, right?”

“…!”

“So, please take us with you when you go to that Gryphon person. I will try to persuade him, and also persuade the White Wolves.”