Volume 2 - CH 423

10-9. Sharing

“Houen, wake up!”

“…Hmm.”

He had only intended to take a short nap, but he couldn’t wake up until he was woken up.

Incomplete sleep would bring drowsiness back, but he shook it off and stood up.

While he was sleeping, everyone had already gathered in this place.

It seemed that Reizen had called everyone together after joining forces with Yurie and Roze.

That was convenient.

With that thought in mind, he rubbed his eyes and dispelled the drowsiness once again.

“You’ve managed to gather information so quickly since yesterday.”

“I apologize, Guildmaster Maria. I wanted to rest, but it seems that will have to wait a bit longer.”

“Busy days are commonplace. So, what did you find?”

“…I made contact with a devil.”

It’s no wonder everyone was surprised by Houen’s words.

That was a natural reaction.

However, it would be troublesome to respond individually to each one, so he conveyed everything that had happened earlier to everyone.

Uchikage seemed even more surprised when he learned that Irza was a devil.

He probably didn’t expect a devil to be so close by.

“So, next is the Garott Kingdom, and we’re the ones to prevent the resurrection of the evil god?”

“That’s correct.”

“But, Houen, is it really something that can be done so easily?”

As Alena said, it’s not something that can be easily done. 

“We don’t know the true method, but one of the three methods I’m about to explain should lead to a way to prevent the resurrection of the evil god.”

First is the people’s movement.

Second is the souls offering.

Third is the consumption of magical power.

The first method has no clear reason.

Therefore, they will try the remaining two methods in the Garrot Kingdom as the last resort.

The second is the most time-consuming, the souls offering.

They will start with this and then move on to the consumption of magic power.

Lastly, they will attempt to move the people.

The drawback is that they need to acquire a large number of prey, but it is not impossible with the use of adventurers from all over the country.

They will capture monsters alive, kill them within the Garott Kingdom, and release their souls.

It may be a cruel method, but it has the highest potential.

Since they don’t know how many souls they will need, this is likely to be a long-term strategy.

He thinks the consumption of magical power can be done concurrently, so while securing prey, he will ask many people for assistance and have them use magic.

“It’s fine to leave the movement of the citizens for last. The chances are also low…”

“Um… excuse me…”

“Hm? What’s the matter, Roze?”

“Well, um… it’s really difficult for me to say, but… it will take at least five days to repair the carriage…”

“Huh!?”

The mounted dragon carriage is slightly larger compared to a regular one.

The wood used is also relatively large and carefully crafted, but it traveled back and forth on a ten-day journey at that speed.

It’s no wonder it’s showing signs of wear and tear.

When Hoen arrived here, Roze and Yurie were absent because they were getting the carriage inspected and had gone out for a while.

If they continued to run it as it was, it would have undoubtedly suffered a major breakdown at some point, so it is currently undergoing repairs.

Originally, they only needed one carriage, but the Battle Horses also joined the run, so they ended up using the spare carriage.

It also traveled for ten days in the same manner, so it is also in need of repairs.

Ironically, it seems to have held up well for ten days.

“The means of transportation…”

“It seems like all the components of the carriage’s undercarriage need to be replaced. They were quite cracked and showed signs of heat friction…”

“Even if we use Lacc, it will only accommodate three people… Using Shadow Wolves will also take time…”

“It might be faster to simply travel by carriage without any complications.”

Rather than waiting for repairs, they want to depart today and save as much time as possible.

While sending back and forth using Lacc is an option, it would be more efficient and allow them to strategize if we all went together at once. Running through the eight-day journey with Shadow Wolves would also be time-consuming, and it would take a significant amount of time to connect the shortcuts, so it doesn’t seem realistic.

As Yurie suggested, it’s probably best to travel safely by carriage.

“Well, there’s no helping it… Let’s go with a regular carriage. By the way, I will stay here until Ouren awakens.”

“Alena will stay too!”

“You should go. We might need the help of the Bamil territory, so it’s enough for me to stay here alone.”

Alena was sulking, but they needed as much firepower as possible to the destined place.

Currently, she wouldn’t be able to exert her power even if she stayed here.

After seeing Alena reluctantly agree, he turned his attention to Uchikage.

“Uchikage, I want you to request cooperation from the Fuma Clan. Then, arrange for cooperation with Asure.”

“Understood. In that case, I should head there first, right?”

“Yes, please. The others will be traveling by carriage from now on. Roze, I’ll borrow Lacc  once Ouren awakens.”

“That’s fine. We can’t afford to be delayed.”

“Sorry about that. Well, everyone, I’m counting on you.”

Uchikage immediately disappeared from the spot.

The others also started moving to prepare, but Maria approached him.

It seemed like she had something to discuss.

“Houen… It’s about Prince Kreiss…”

“Oh, how did it go?”

“He’s currently staying quietly inside the castle. The king praised you all for doing a good job…”

“What happened?”

“Don’t be surprised… The Vulpan Kingdom has proposed a ceasefire.”

“Isn’t that too early? Normally, it would take at least…”

“It should take twenty days.”

The proposal for a ceasefire was quite absurd.

It’s hard to believe that they would initiate such a proposal.

Of course, the king of Salletana Kingdom has no intention of complying with it, and they are currently gathering troops and preparing for war.

But that’s not the problem.

He somehow understands this situation.

The problem is how the documents arrived here faster than they did.

It’s unlikely that they predicted this would happen and had messengers waiting.

Usually, they would write the document after Prince Kreiss escaped.

“No, it can’t be…”

“We should send someone to the Vulpan Kingdom as well. According to Hoeen’s story, Vulpan Kingdom, which was not marked on the map shown by the devil, should be included.”

“That’s true, but we might not be able to contact them immediately.”

“I have a set of communication crystals, so I’ll give them to Shadow Eye. It’s an extra step, and I apologize for that. So, I’m counting on you, Shadow Eye.”

“Yes ma’am!”

Maria took out a crystal from her magic tool bag and handed it to Vid.

After carefully storing it back in the magic tool bag, the three of them mounted the Shadow Wolves and headed back to Vulpan Kingdom.

“We’ll leave it to them. While not as fast as riding dragons or battle horses, Shadow Wolves should arrive faster than usual.”

“That’s right. Take care of Ouren.”

◆

“…And that’s the reason why everyone is not here.”

“While I was sleeping, a lot of things happened… I’m sorry…”

“So, from now on, there’s a problem that you caused, the unconscious evolution that occurred…”

“I want to hear more about that… but please don’t be angry… I didn’t mean any harm…”

Uhm, yeah…

I’m so sorry about that .