The Story Of The Second Son Of The Baron Family [EN]: Chapter 28

“Tsk, tsk. What a stubborn friend.”

After sending Renil and Marquis Ziek’s daughter out, the Emperor murmured, sounding frustrated. How desperate must Ziek have been to ask the Emperor himself for help with family matters? Of course, since the Emperor knew he was partly to blame, he couldn’t refuse, despite Renil’s pessimistic view.

‘In the end, he hasn’t even taken a single vacation in almost ten years.’

In fact, the Emperor had no intention of keeping Ziek tied to the Terra Barrier forever. He had repeatedly suggested that Ziek leave the barrier’s defense to his subordinate knights or, if more support was needed, to deploy the Imperial Knights. He urged Ziek to take a vacation in the rear if necessary, but Ziek’s answer was always the same.

[My soldiers are fighting for the Empire without a single break. If I, who am merely pushing the Empire’s soldiers into the jaws of death without any special merit, were to take a vacation and return to my hometown simply because of my high position, the morale of the soldiers would plummet.]

After that, the Emperor sent several personal letters, but the response was always the same. It had been years since he told Ziek to speak up whenever he needed a vacation, but Ziek had never left the Terra Barrier, not even once.

‘He’s been doing the dirty work for me his whole life. I can’t let him live the rest of his life resenting his children.’

However, the Emperor couldn’t just summon Ziek carelessly. The defense of the Terra Barrier was too important. The list of people who could replace Ziek barely existed. There were only two people who could realistically do it, but one was out of the question. Taking someone from the South to defend the North was like robbing Peter to pay Paul [an idiom meaning to solve a problem by creating another problem].

“Count Winchester. Tell Marquis Pongke to come to the capital immediately. As quickly as possible!”

“Yes!”

#

The soldiers’ steps are endlessly heavy. It’s not that I don’t understand their feelings, but even if we arrive earlier, the date for sending reinforcements and magic stones from the capital to the Terra Barrier won’t be moved up. If we continue like this, I feel like I’ll be swept away by their dark mood.

“You’re slow.”

“It can’t be helped. How good must it have been when they first arrived here? For a while, they didn’t have to worry about their lives. But now they’re walking into the jaws of death with their own feet, so their steps can’t be light.”

I began to think that I shouldn’t have brought them. Not because they were causing trouble or because their atmosphere would affect me, but because they were really going to their deaths.

“Will they die?”

“It’s not your fault. It’s just that their resolve is weak. You should be prepared.”

It’s harder to maintain an appropriate level of tension than to be tense. Especially since it was even more difficult to regain tension that had been released.

They might have lived longer if they had continued to fight on the Terra Barrier. Will a body that has once been soaked in peace be able to adapt to the battlefield again? Even if they do adapt, will they be able to endure during that time? With such worries, I and my party returned to the Terra Barrier.

“This is the Imperial Edict that His Majesty wishes to convey to the Marquis.”

“Hmm…”

Marquis Ziek slowly read the Emperor’s Edict. Finally, he uttered a short word.

“You’ve worked hard.”

With this, the long and arduous mission outside was perfectly over. Now it was time to return to being one of the many mages of the Terra Barrier. I had tried not to forget the tension here during that time, but perhaps the worries I had about the soldiers would apply to me as well.

The only fortunate thing was that they didn’t have the power to correct their mistakes, but I had a way to fix things, at least once. Of course, the best situation was that such a thing didn’t happen in the first place.

“It seems you’ve done much better than I thought. Since they say they’ll support us with more than I expected, we’ll have a little more leeway here. Anyway, thank you for your hard work. Even if a battle breaks out today, rest and adapt before you can be active again.”

“Thank you for your consideration. And…”

I took out a letter from my chest, which I had carefully kept safe, rain or shine, and placed it in front of Marquis Ziek.

“After the demonstration in the capital, I was invited by your daughter. She asked me to deliver this letter to you, Marquis.”

“She’s done a useless thing. I’m on official duty right now. I don’t have time to worry about personal matters.”

“It seems your daughter expected you to say that. If you don’t read the letter, she asked me to tell you just one thing:

[Mother wants to see Father one last time.]”

Silence.

I don’t know the details, but from that one sentence alone, I could tell that Marquis Ziek’s wife didn’t have much time left to live. And hadn’t the young lady been trying to convey the news to Marquis Ziek all this time? And didn’t Marquis Ziek know that? The probability of that was less than 1%, even if I put it high. In that sense, the current words were nothing more than a final warning from the young lady’s point of view.

“…Leave if you have nothing more to say.”

After a moment of silence, Marquis Ziek dismissed me. I couldn’t feel even a slight change in his expression, but only he would know what was on his mind.

#

“The Tower Master was also interested and took the product to study it.”

“Ooooooh!”

“Really? The Tower Master?!”

“Yes. You should have seen the faces of the elders when they were surprised.”

“Kya! It’s worth the hard work!”

I was surrounded by my colleagues and told the story of what happened in the capital. The creation of the Scorpion [likely a magical weapon] was not the achievement of one person, but the result of everyone working together. Everyone was proud to hear that our efforts had surprised the snobbish nobles. Not only that, but the news that the Tower Master had come down himself, examined it, and then taken it away created an atmosphere as if they would have had a drinking party if there had been alcohol.

“Does this mean we won’t be going on the autumn expedition this year?”

“Well, we’ve killed a lot of high-ranking species recently, but the autumn expedition is a tradition of the Terra Barrier. Even if the Scorpion is deployed, the autumn expedition won’t disappear.”

“Still, this is something. If only the high-ranking species decrease, then the miscellaneous monsters can never cross the Terra Barrier. The battle will be a little easier.”

“That’s a good point.”

There was shocking news that I heard when I returned here. The high-ranking monsters no longer scouted around. It was a fact that they were running at us with their eyes on fire, as if their hostility towards humans had increased. As a result, the number of casualties was increasing at a faster rate. In the midst of all this, the news that the deployment of the Scorpion, a weapon against high-ranking species, was not far off could only please everyone.

“We should have a drink on a day like this!”

“Don’t. Unless you’re thinking of going up on the barrier while drunk.”

“Isn’t one drink okay? One drink?”

After talking for a long time, everyone dispersed, feeling satisfied. And the only people left were me and Ild. After confirming that everyone had disappeared, Ild slowly approached and asked.

“You lied, no, you hid the truth.”

“Yes. Everyone looked tired and exhausted. It’s not a lie, so isn’t it okay? At least everyone seemed to be in a good mood. How did you notice, Ild? Everyone was so excited that no one seemed to notice.”

“No matter how hard a turtle runs, it can’t be faster than a rabbit. It’s the same. No matter how hard we try, it’s just a child’s toy to the Tower Master. He probably noticed it at a glance. Don’t you think?”

“…That’s right.”

“Well, anyway, you’ve worked hard. Everyone looked tired, but it seems like they’ve regained some energy, just like you said. I guess this is what a kind lie is. You should go in and rest now. You’ll miss the peace we’ve had until now starting tomorrow.”

#

It was my first real battle in a long time after completing my mission, but the Terra Barrier was still the same. No, it had become more fierce and desperate. From the time when there was talk of creating an alert higher than a red alert until now, it was because the high-ranking species, which I had simply thought was a one-time phenomenon, were actively participating in the battle.

“I should have gone alone…”

The attack pattern had changed. And if you couldn’t adapt to the changed pattern, you would die. If this world were a game, you could die and be resurrected, learn the pattern, and eventually kill the boss monster, but unfortunately, this world was not a game but reality. Once you die, that’s it. And unfortunately, the sight of those who had faced each other for dozens of days closing their eyes and not being able to get up was a heartbreaking thing.

“Those guys…”

“Wisp Sergeant.”

“So it ended up like this. I don’t know if I should be glad that I salvaged even the corpses, or if I should be sad that they couldn’t last a day even though I told them so many times.”

Still, I had built up a relationship with them for a short time, so I prayed that they would go to a good place and soon left. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first or second time that people had died, and it was something that I had become accustomed to. Only a year ago, I had no experience and tried to cast magic at the monsters, but now I had become a so-called veteran who had overcome countless bloody battles and didn’t care even when I saw corpses, to put it in a slightly awkward way.

As time went by, Marquis Ziek always worked hard to defend the Terra Barrier at the forefront. I even felt a sense of awe at his dedication, to the point where I doubted whether I had conveyed the message properly. How could he be so loyal to the Emperor? Didn’t he want to know how his blood relatives were doing? Didn’t he want to see their faces? I wanted to commend his patience.

Then one day, on a day when everyone was so exhausted that lying down and resting after the battle became the number one virtue, on a day when everyone was barely surviving, praying that reinforcements would arrive even a day earlier, I noticed that people were gathered and buzzing, unlike usual.

“What’s going on?”

It’s a place where even ordinary things don’t become a topic of conversation. Nevertheless, if people are gathered and buzzing, it means that something has happened. Naturally, my steps also headed towards my colleagues.

“Someone came from the capital!”

“From the capital?”

The only people who could come from the capital these days were reinforcements. But if five digits of soldiers had come, there’s no way I wouldn’t know, even though I had just come down from the barrier. But there was no sign of reinforcements, even if I looked closely.

Besides, is the fact that someone came from the capital such a big deal that it would become a topic of conversation like this? When the name that came out of my colleague’s mouth made me understand why they were gathered here all at once.

“Marquis Pongke has arrived!”

#

“What are you doing here?”

“It’s the Emperor’s Edict. Tsk. If it weren’t for the order, I would have swung my sword one more time… Read it quickly.”

Two of those called the Emperor’s three swords [a title given to the Emperor’s most skilled warriors] gathered in one place. However, even though they shared the same title, the relationship between the two was not very good.

Marquis Ziek, who devoted everything to loyalty, and Marquis Pongke, who valued personal training more, were bound to clash from birth.

Marquis Ziek, who looked at Marquis Pongke with a dissatisfied look as he made it obvious that he was reluctantly carrying out the order, hurriedly read the Edict.

Although they didn’t have a good relationship, Marquis Ziek couldn’t help but acknowledge his skills. But if the Emperor had to appoint him as an envoy and order him to do something, it must be a very important matter, and it was not the time to put personal feelings first.

“You’re entrusting the command of the Terra Barrier to me and telling me to return to the capital?”

“That’s what happened. So pack your bags and go up to the capital quickly. I’ll take good care of this place while you’re gone.”

“No way! Are you telling me to entrust the lives of tens of thousands of people to a guy whose only job is to run wild as he pleases!”

“So, are you thinking of refusing the Imperial Order? You, of all people, the Imperial Order?”

Crack-

The sound of a slightly mocking voice and the sound of grinding teeth echoed clearly.