CH 23

Chapter 23 Gray Tower(4)

Translator: BaeBae Editor: BaeBae

“Can we trust that bastard? Boss, are we really going into the Gray tower with him?”

“I…I agree as well. We might all die because of him.”

“I believe your judgement boss, but I’m telling you, that guy is beyond crazy. Ignoring whether he’s actually skilled or not, you know what happens when you enter a dangerous place with a psycho.”

“I’ll constantly be worried whether I’ll be stabbed in the back. There’s no way I’m having him walk behind me.”

Huksel didn’t say a single word yet his crew was showering him with complaints.

The only one’s silent were Anya and Juan.

Anya was in silence meanwhile, Juan was blatantly watching them while listening in on their conversation.

Huksel put his hand on his forehead.

The biggest issue was that they didn’t know if Juan was actually talented or not.

If he’d showed them a bit of his skill, the expedition could have continued, but right now Huksel couldn’t force this.

“You seem to have a lot on your mind.”

Anya commented as she approached him.

“You don’t need to think too much about this. The tower’s a dangerous place for a boy anyways. Better send him out now rather than never.”

“Mrs…”

Huksel didn’t want to, but the word of the sponsor was hard to refuse.

Plus, if he’d insisted on bringing Juan, it seemed other members were set on turning back.

Huksel’s was struggling to make a decision.

After a long thought, he opened his mouth

“…..Alright. Juan will stay behind, while we’ll go up the tower. If it looks doable we’ll commence the raid, while if it looks difficult we’ll retreat and get Juan’s help, just in case he is useful.”

“Are you sure about this?.”

The one who replied was no Anya but Juan. Juan was smiling while twirling around Taltere’s sword.

“With you or not, I’m intending to head up the tower. I don’t have any reason to wait while you lot turn into corpses. If you want to go alone though, then we’ll split here as i’ll head on up first. Whether you guys follow or not I don’t care.”

“What nonsense are you talking about….!”

Anya shouted with a reddened face.

“It’s not a place where children can freely come and go! Do people from outside the border throw away their lives so easily?”

“That’s strange. From what I’ve seen, people from inside the border don’t value their lives as well.”

It was the Gray tower’s true form.

The tower looked in good shape but in truth the fog of smoke was hiding areas where it had collapsed. Because of this, there were many places to enter the tower.

“I’ll give you one piece of advice before we go in.”

Juan who’d turned around looked at each member one by one.

“Advice?”

You guys looked sulky so I’m giving you a tip. First the thief. For your role, you’re a bit dim. If you aren’t going to pick locks, then at least you need to bring some combat skills for the team. Absolutely no courage and narrow minded.. You haven’t done any fighting so there’s really no advice to give.”

“Wha, what? This bastard!”

“And the magician. Please cast your spells faster. I don’t know where you learnt magic but you must’ve given up half way through training. Are you using ‘Kenan’ language to speak your magic? It has too many unnecessary words. If you’ve learnt the basics that’s enough. Try to graduate from it as soon as you can. For you, I recommend using ‘Pelt’ language.”

“Pe, Pelt? Why would I consider using that dead langu…”

Huksel let a sigh and looked around.

The fog was slowly disappearing inside the half collapsed tower.

While the fog was still thick, now they were able to see in front of them.

Inside the tower, everything was in ruins. They didn’t see any lifeforms.

Torrell looked around while sweating.

“Boss, that kid is nowhere to be found.”

“……..Don’t worry about him. Let’s think for ourselves first.”

Huksel tried focusing his entire senses to see if it made a difference.

Just because you couldn’t see anything, didn’t mean nothing was there.

Ever so slowly, some things changed.

The fog close to the ground moved against the drift.

There were a few areas where this was happening.

“It’s moving.”

“Boss?”

“Sereum, prepare the enchantment that I requested.”

Sereum with a nervous expression started the enchantment.

Huksel pulled out one of his equipment that he’d prepared.

The fog that was moving in a pattern suddenly moved towards Huksel’s crew.

For more,

“The light is fading! Come together!”

As the light weakened and the shadows faded, Huksel threw another light grenade.

As he had used his entire fortune on this, he had plenty left.

The monsters, dumbfounded at Huksels method, were still moving about here and there to surround Huksel’s crew.

However, they simply couldn’t go closer due to the light in the air.

“Boss! These monsters can’t do anything!”

Benson shouted in happiness.

As they overpowered opponents that usually put fear into all expeditioners, they couldn’t contain their excitement.

However, Huksel couldn’t but feel a sense of nervousness within him.

Juan had come in before them.

So then, either the amount of monsters should have lessened or Juan should have been a corpse by now. But it was neither of the two.

Where had Juan gone off to?

At this moment, Huksel heard an unusual noise. A thunderous roaring sound was beckoning from above.

Beyond the fog towards the left, a massive impact echoed and shaked the ground.

Huksel panicked and looked above.

The tower was moving.

*****

Sina Solbein was looking at the tower off in the distance beyond the forest.

After being incorporated into the chasing group, she’d ridden without stopping through countless nights and days.

Her entire body was aching.

It was the same for every other knight.

“Right, there’s the Gray tower.”

Kato started a conversation. In all honesty, Sina didn’t want to reply back but couldn’t ignore an inquisitor’s words.

“I’ve heard it’s the place where the emperor’s wisdom was shone bright like the sun.”

“Now, it’s become a sacred place of ingratitude. I’ve heard many indecent folks attempt to go up the tower in search of the hidden treasure. Of course, adding themselves to the pile of corpses in the tower.”

“The emperor stated not to view human greed in only a negative way. He said greed is natural and emotions like love and bravery are found from a sense of greed.”

“Now, now, aren’t you well versed with the words of scripture.”

“Only the ones I know.”

In order to argue with a professor of Torra’s knight school, skim reading the scripture wasn’t enough.

But from reading it thoroughly, she’d only gotten a bad temperament.

The emperor’s words were perfect but the people who scribed his words weren’t. Therefore, errors and contradictions existed in scriptures.

The problem was some tried using misinterpreted information to their advantage and ignored the rest which was correctly transcribed.

Sina knew from experience when facing these people, stating the orthodox parts of the scripture would usually shut them up.

“Let’s hurry then. The sheath is longing for its home.”

Kato looked into the square glass. Inside the glass, the sheath was vibrating in the direction of the Gray tower.

According to Kato’s words, it pointed to where Juan was currently at.

And true to his words, on the way, they’d found traces of Juan at a village.

Sina still didn’t understand the principle behind it but nervously followed his volition.

“I don’t understand why he’s there. Didn’t you say he was initially heading for the capital?”

At Sina’s question, Kato’s eyebrows furrowed.

“Would someone who didn’t touch Daaron’s treasure trove at all, be looking for riches? Not a chance. More likely, his objective is the evil armor that the emperor sealed inside the tower. After denigrating and desecrating it’s divinity, he’ll make the weapon his.”

Sina didn’t reply.

While it was difficult to agree with Kato’s opinion, she kept recalling a particular scene in her head. When Juan had swallowed Taltere’s blood.

Plus, there wasn’t anyone normal who visited the Gray tower.

Beasts, humans, most were criminals with no future that were on the brink of despair or heretics that were part of a cult.

Sina and the Blue Rose knights hasted their approach towards the Gray tower.