LIGHTNOVELSTORY chapter 12
12 – Myeong (1)
Fundamentally, a siege favors the defending side more than the attacking side in conducting a battle.
No matter how numerous the attacking forces may be, the presence of fortifications provides a decisive advantage that can cover overwhelming numerical disparities.
Of course, in this world, there are heroes who can nullify such advantages of fortifications, but that’s only when the fortifications are conventional.
From the moment resources were invested in fortifications to enchant them with ‘magic,’ fortifications gained significance even for heroes.
“Hoo, hoo, hoo-!”
Just like now.
Lordmalice looked around with a confident expression.
Visible on the fortress walls were over a hundred archers armed with high-grade equipment and ten Wyvern Riders, prepared for deployment just in case, standing tall behind him.
Beside them, more than six heroes who had shown dazzling performances in dozens of territorial battles were also in formation on both sides.
Among them, there were four outstanding heroes.
Baron the Executioner.
Arta the Spearman.
Sharen of the Hundred.
Talan the Silent.
They gazed down beneath the fortress with self-assured expressions.
Like the heroes, turning his gaze, Lordmalice looked at the woman standing with red eyes in the barren field.
With eyes that seemed endlessly cold,
Yet strangely, with a gaze that appeared to contain hidden anger.
“…”
As Lordmalice observed that gaze, he unintentionally felt his breath catch.
Quaaaang!
In front of Lordmalis, a deafening explosion echoed.
More precisely, the sound came from the blue barrier that appeared about 5 meters away from Lordmalis, raised by Merilda to intercept the swinging fist.
Crackle! Snap, crackle!
The defensive barrier started to shimmer, accompanied by a rough, grinding noise.
However.
Thud!
The barrier, propelled by a powerful elasticity, swiftly pushed back the red-eyed assault.
Watching her, who displayed an attack so fast that even heroes, including Lordmalis, couldn’t comprehend it, land on the ground.
Kududududud-
He soon wiped cold sweat off his forehead while witnessing the barrier’s rapid recovery from any damages.
“Though you’ve come this far, it’s regrettable, Red Eyes. You can’t surpass this protective rampart.”
The reason for Lordmalis’s confident expression.
It was because a protective magic was cast on the walls of the Sertova Territory.
Not just any sorcerer’s protection spell but a magical array created by investing a jaw-dropping amount of resources and inviting dozens of sorcerers.
Of course, the protective array wasn’t invincible.
To construct it in the first place, one had to pour the entire budget of the territory for several years.
Moreover, it could only defend against most external attacks once it was completed, as long as there were energy-rich magical stones involved.
In other words, as soon as the magical stones embedded in Sertova Territory were depleted, the protective rampart would cease to function.
Despite being aware of this fact, the reason Lordmalis was so confident was because Sertova Territory possessed an abundance of magical stones.
“Well, I didn’t plan to use these stones for the wall, anyway…!”
Considering that Sertova Lord had gathered more than 100 tons of magical stones for a specific reason, it was undoubtedly a painful loss.
However, viewed differently, the fact that there were around 100 tons of magical stones would unquestionably secure his life from Red Eyes.
With that in mind, he could afford to wear a self-satisfied smile.
As Merilda rushed forward again, ready to swing her fist once more.
Kuuuuung!
Her fist was, once again, blocked by the protective rampart.
“You call yourself a hero killer or whatever, but it’s not a big deal. Isn’t it more like you have a bit of a twisted mind?”
“Yeah, why is that?”
“Maybe it’s because I’m a mermaid; our minds tend to be a bit off.”
Alongside the mocking laughter, accompanied by Baron, the hero slayer, standing next to the lord with a smirking expression, the heroes opened their mouths again.
Of course, they knew just how powerful those red eyes were.
After all, the heroes hadn’t witnessed Merilda’s attack with their own eyes until just a moment ago.
However, their ability to mock those red eyes was rooted in their awareness of the overwhelming protective barrier’s strength, much like the Lord.
Merilda, surrounded by heroes who were now sneering at her antics and soldiers mocking her with derisive laughter, took a moment to glance at those laughing at her.
Swiftly, she lowered her gaze to find something.
Hm.
In the midst of the vast field, she picked up a small stone, no larger than her palm.
Clack-clack!
She soon began to shave the stone with her own fingernail.
“?”
“What’s she doing?”
“Well, maybe she suddenly felt like doing some sculpting.”
“Is her head a bit off?”
While heroes conversed and laughed at Merilda, just like Lord Malice, she said nothing and continued to carve the stone. Eventually, she shaped the stone into a thin arrowhead.
She looked directly at Lord Malice.
At that moment, as Lord Malice, like the heroes ridiculing her, sensed a threat through the peculiar intuition of a seasoned hero, whoosh!
Lord Malice turned his attention at the sound from the side.
Soon, he could see.
“Creak—what’s that noise?”
In the midst of countless battlefields, a sharp stone was embedded in the neck of the Executioner Baron, who had been single-handedly slaughtering hundreds of soldiers.
Splat!
The blood that spewed out as soon as Lord Malice realized the stone was lodged in Baron’s neck sprayed in all directions.
Thump!
A hero, whom Lord Malice trusted, met his end.
Before he could even fathom the question of how, in his mind.
“Ah—”
A voice echoed from below the fortress walls.
“-Missed him.”
In the crimson-eyed, emotionless voice.
Chilling!
Unbeknownst to Lordmalis, he felt a shiver running down his spine, and unconsciously, he stepped back from the castle wall.
####
A few days later.
[Congratulations! You have earned a title.]
[Title: ‘Deity of Stonework’]
“…What is this?”
Kim Hyunwoo, who had recently muttered in disbelief, with an absurd tone, after creating the resources needed to build the barracks and blacksmith.
Turning his gaze, he watched as the ledger of the territory castle slowly began to take shape. Suddenly, he shifted his attention to the decorative cabinet on one side of the office.
More precisely, he looked at the shelf of the cabinet where the wine had disappeared.
‘…Why did Merilda take the wine?’
As Kim Hyunwoo thought about it, he realized that he hadn’t seen the wine since Merilda swiftly entered and exited the territory a while ago. With a puzzled expression, he soon shook his head, but unable to find a clear answer even after pondering for the past few days, he suddenly diverted his thoughts elsewhere.
‘King of the Merfolk, now that I think about it, what was so impressive about that?’
The title “King of the Merfolk” attached to Merilda was not actually given by Arteal but was a name Kim Hyunwoo had personally coined. In Arteal, basic titles were automatically assigned to heroes of level 4 and above, and it was not possible to create a title for them. On the contrary, for heroes of levels 1 to 3, if they were raised to level 4 or above, a title could be created.
From Kim Hyunwoo’s perspective, at this moment, there was a hero who felt slightly sorry because of the title.
‘Absolute Master of Darkness…’
As soon as Kim Hyunwoo thought about it, he unconsciously touched his forehead as if it were dizzying and involuntarily clenched and released his hand.
“Not easy.”
The title was not as easy as he unintentionally murmured.
‘Why did I come up with such a chuunibyou name?’
Of course, the person who could answer that question had disappeared and ceased to exist ten years ago.
The Absolute Master of Darkness was a name Kim Hyunwoo came up with, along with the thought that it would be cool to have a hero raised in the back seat of the classroom when he was 17, at the height of his Arteal days.
In fact, at that time, and even after quitting the game, there was never any regret or particular thought about giving that title.
However, now that he was inside the game and thought that the hero he raised was using such a title, a sense of guilt crept up on him.
Honestly, when Kim Hyunwoo created that title at the age of seventeen, it was a chuunibyou, ridiculous title overflowing with adolescence.
So.
‘…If by any chance, we meet in the future, I should apologize for this.’
As Kim Hyun-woo gazed absentmindedly at the nearing completion of the manuscript, in the Sertova Territory,
“Milord…! The quantity of mana stones we possess-!”
“Silence! I know, so shut up!”
“Yes, yes!”
Lord Malice sat in his office chair with an extremely anxious expression, lips gnawed in a mixture of unease and restlessness,
Thud! Bang! Thud!
Along with the tremendous noise echoing from outside the lord’s castle, he clenched his teeth, witnessing the shimmering blue barrier defending the castle against the onslaught.
‘That monstrous girl…!’
Lord Malice narrowed his red eyes.
A few days ago, she had ground a mere rock into powder, piercing through the protective barrier and effortlessly killing one of his heroes, the Executioner Baran.
‘How on earth did she breach the defense spell…?!’
Lord Malice furrowed his brow in bewilderment at the phenomenon he couldn’t fathom.
The only consolation was that, beyond that, she seemed to lack the means to attack further. Yet, her attempts to hurl rocks or swing fists to dismantle the protective spell only fueled Lord Malice’s anxiety.
Certainly, the roughly 100 tons of mana stones had dwindled to a meager 30 tons under the gaze of her red eyes.
‘Is this… is this a plausible situation…?’
A hundred tons of mana stones were, in jest, substantial for consuming through a protective spell. It was an amount usually reserved for protracted, large-scale warfare.
However, those hundred tons were being consumed by her alone in just a few days, leaving Lord Malice increasingly breathless as time passed.
If the engraved protective spell on the castle walls were to break after a bit more time, he was well aware of what awaited him.
‘When is help coming…!’
With beads of cold sweat now streaming down his palms, Lord Malice, clenching an anxious gaze, found himself yearning for relief.
“Milord!”
The servant who had hastily fled the lord’s office upon the earlier commotion returned.
“The Swords of Kalan have arrived!”
The messenger conveyed the news to Lord Malice.
Upon hearing those words, Lord Malice erased the previously anxious expression, replacing it with a smile that reached his eyes.
####
The first thing Lord Malice did when the red eyes appeared in the crystal ball, foretelling impending doom, was to request support from the Kalan Kingdom.
Not just any support, but a plea to the foremost warriors of Kalan, the Five Swords of Kalan.
Certainly, summoning Kalan’s Five Swords was no easy feat, even if Ser Tobaya had dedicated himself to the kingdom all this time.
To be more precise, much had been dedicated to Lord Rosetonia, a substantial figure among the actual rulers of Kalan Kingdom. This dedication allowed the request for support from Kalan’s Five Swords.
Believing that with just Kalan’s Five Swords, survival was guaranteed, protective magic circles were being consumed at an alarming rate. Despite this, a glimmer of hope was clung to as they waited.
“I’ve survived…! I’m alive now!”
Lord Malis looked at the figure of Lorell, one of Kalan’s Five Swords, entering his office and immediately tried to bow his head.
However, right after that,
“?”
Lorell stepped aside, lowering her head slightly towards the door. Naturally, Kalan’s Five Swords didn’t bow their heads to just anyone, nor did they express reverence. The only ones they bowed to were the king of Kalan or those with power comparable to the king.
Thus, Lord Malis, who was expressing doubt, was puzzled.
Shortly after, a girl entered the office, and upon hearing her voice,
“I’ll ask.”
– he instinctively felt that something was wrong.
“Did you—”
The reason was that the girl’s eyes, receiving the reverence of Kalan’s Sword, showed too much hatred.