The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 2

Baron Family’s Second Son – 02

About two weeks later, the time to leave our beloved territory and head north was approaching. It was an order from the Emperor of the Empire.

To defy this was nothing short of treason, turning our peaceful territory into a battlefield. If our family had more power and influence, we might have been assigned somewhere other than the north, but we were just a minor noble family in the region. We had no choice but to obey quietly.

“Be careful, and be careful again. If you let your guard down even for a moment, you never know when you might get hit by a stray sword.”

“I’m sorry. Originally, I should be the one going… I feel like I’m placing another heavy burden on you.”

“Don’t worry too much. The north is still inhabited, and it’s part of the Empire. I’ll be as careful as possible and will definitely come back.”

“Brother, you must come back safe.”

I said my goodbyes to my father, mother, older brother, and younger sister, and left the territory. Thinking about the future ahead, I felt a sense of hopelessness. But there was no other way.

To run away or refuse to go? As I said, this is an imperial order. Even if the Emperor didn’t issue the order directly, its authority is absolute. And this world is a monarchy where all power is concentrated in the Emperor. I couldn’t make my family and the people of the territory, with whom I’ve grown attached to for nearly twenty years, suffer just to save myself.

And it wasn’t possible for another family member to go instead of me. In the first place, it didn’t make sense for my older brother, the eldest son, to go to the north where he could die at any moment, since he had to take over the family. And it made even less sense for my younger sister, who hadn’t even had her coming-of-age ceremony yet, to go. That’s why I was going to the north of my own accord, half resigned. Why couldn’t they send someone else?

Unfortunately, I am one of the mages affiliated with the Magic Tower of the Empire. Moreover, I am a promising mage who created three circles [a measure of magical power and skill] before the age of twenty. The entertainment of this world was nothing new to me, who had been trained on the internet [referencing his past life]. Instead, I was interested in magic, which could be said to be the essence of fantasy, and I achieved decent results through a combination of considerable talent and effort. I didn’t know this would come as such a penalty. Anyway, there was no way for everyone to be at peace except for me going to the north.

“Two years was hard enough, but ten years… In the north, where you never know when a battle will break out!”

The northern part of the Empire, especially the Terra Barrier located at the very edge. That was where I had to survive for ten years. The strongest and most impregnable shield that protects the Empire from the monsters swarming outside the Empire’s territory. Unlike in my previous life in South Korea, where people only talked about war breaking out at any time, this was a place where a battle could break out at any moment in the truest sense.

For ordinary soldiers, the probability of dying in the north is higher than the probability of being caught and killed for desertion. So much so that they say they would rather desert than go to the Terra Barrier. I will omit further explanation.

“Ah, God! Please have mercy on me!”

#

Whether I prayed to a god I didn’t even know or not, the clock hands turned, and the wheels of the carriage rotated in the same way. That meant I was getting closer to the Terra Barrier little by little.

“This is more than I expected…”

It goes without saying that I wasn’t going to the Terra Barrier alone. Dozens of people died every day, and the crossroads of life and death unfolded several times a week. However, abandoning the defense of the Terra Barrier would be the same as abandoning the entire northern part of the Empire, so they had no choice but to continue sending soldiers to the Terra Barrier.

Thus, I joined ten thousand soldiers and dozens of knights. Finally, less than ten mages, including myself, were heading towards the Terra Barrier… It was literally more than I expected.

The soldiers were all sighing with their heads down as if they were being dragged to hell, and the knights who had to lead them were also frowning and urging their horses. Not to mention the mages. Furthermore, I still couldn’t forget.

[Tsk, tsk. How did a talent like you end up going to the north, especially the Terra Barrier…? It’s a pity.]

The look in the eyes of the imperial mage who looked at me when I arrived in the capital for personnel confirmation. That look wasn’t the look of someone looking at a living person. It was the look of someone looking at a dead person. He thought I wouldn’t be able to come back alive. No matter how I thought about it, it was hard to shake off the feeling that I was screwed.

“……”

“……”

The mages in the same carriage as me seemed to be thinking the same thing, as they were all keeping silent with their heads down. It was as if they felt that since they were going to die anyway, there was no point in talking to their comrades who would be fighting together. At that time, a slight commotion was felt from outside.

Rumble, rumble-

“I’ll go check it out.”

“……There’s no need. This is the territory of the Empire. Who would dare to touch the imperial army? It’s probably just the soldiers making a fuss over some monster. If they need our help, they’ll call us. You’d better think about how to survive from now on.”

“Thank you for the advice.”

However, contrary to what he said, I opened the carriage door and went outside. First, it was better to get some fresh air than to endure this silence. Second, if the cause of the commotion was a monster, as the mage said, I was thinking of casting some magic.

I was a room-bound mage who had never experienced actual combat, so I was trying to gain experience from now on. I wouldn’t be able to fight so leisurely once I arrived at the Terra Barrier.

“What’s going on?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. It seems there was a monster village on the route, and the monsters are blocking the road. We’ll take care of it soon, so you can go back inside.”

“I’m feeling stuffy inside, so I’ll lend a hand.”

At my words, the knight readily opened the way. I could feel from his expression, voice, and actions that he had already tried to stop me once and didn’t care what happened after that.

‘Damn it. Everyone looks like they’re about to die…!’

I know we’re heading to our deaths. I also know that the fear of dying as soon as we arrive is too great to escape. But we have to struggle to survive somehow. If we give up like this, we’re just going to die.

“Are those the guys?”

“Yes.”

Hundreds of orcs blocking the path of thousands of soldiers. Their momentum was good, but the difference in numbers of more than ten times was not something that could be overcome with momentum alone. It would be different if there were only soldiers, but now there are knights and a small number of mages.

“I’ll hit them with one shot first.”

“Will you?”

To be honest, there’s not much you can do with three circles. At best, you can kill one person with one blow. It took ten years of effort to be able to do what you could do in a day with a cold weapon, so it was the height of inefficiency. Of course, after another ten years, you’ll only be able to kill a few people with a cold weapon while you can kill dozens of people with magic.

“Oh, fire that burns hot. Reveal yourself by sacrificing the enemy. Fireball.”

Starting with an orc burning to death from a fireball flying in an arc, a battle of hundreds against thousands began. Green blood and red blood began to mix, but the battle ended quickly. The difference in power was overwhelming.

‘Not as much as I thought… I don’t feel nauseous or like I’m going to throw up.’

It’s the first time I’ve used magic against a living creature, the first time I’ve taken a life. But the reason I don’t have any particular reaction is probably because I only pulled the trigger like a gun, not killed directly like a sword, or because I didn’t accept them as human beings with the same personality. Either way, it’s not a bad thing. I’ll have to kill countless monsters to survive in the future, so it would be difficult to be emotional.

“A group of orcs was blocking the road. It seems like it will be cleared up soon, so you can stay inside.”

“I told you so. You’re going to see them a lot in the future, so you’re just making trouble for yourself.”

Before I went outside, the middle-aged mage who said there was no need added one more word, and then the carriage fell silent again. In the first place, most mages don’t care about anything unless it’s related to them.

Thump-

“We’ll start again.”

Whether the battle was over or not, the wheels of the carriage began to turn once again. And on the night of the battle with the monsters, I had a dream.

#

“Huh!”

It was too vivid to be a dream. I wiped the cold sweat that had formed on my forehead and went over the contents of the dream again, but I had never had such an ‘experience’. It was a vivid but clear dream. So I couldn’t fall asleep again.

“Clearly, in this way…”

In the dream, I was me, but I wasn’t me. But for some reason, it felt like I could still do what I did in the dream even now that I was awake. So I tried it once.

“Hmm.”

A stone that fits snugly in my fist. Just one letter. A considerable amount of magic was drained even though it was just engraving one letter. Instead, what I got was a stone engraved with the letter ‘Explosion (爆)’ [Japanese for “explosion”].

“Where are you going?”

“I have something to experiment with, so ignore it even if you hear an explosion.”

Leaving the soldiers on guard behind, I moved far enough away from the camp and threw the stone in my hand with all my might.

Bang-

I don’t know why, but what I thought was a dream was apparently not just a dream.

Baron Family’s Second Son – 02 – End