Chapter 150: I Will Help
“Has the situation changed drastically?”
Inside the rattling carriage, I found myself deep in thought.
Back when I had ford the Blood Pact with Nella and escaped Beneta with her, my goal had been simple: rescue Lochter Felice from his predicant and swiftly return to Beneta.
At the ti, Kal Blazer was lying low, not revealing his claws. My plan had been to use Lochter to rally the other races and prepare for war against the Mad Butcher.
But now…
“Kal has finally revealed his claws.”
Had my actions been the catalyst that provoked Kal’s change?
He no longer hid his cards. In this last battle, he revealed much more than expected:
Artifacts-wielding forces, cursed dolls deployed to the battlefield, and even the Territory of the Dead and the Gold Puppet Army.
Nella saw all of this firsthand, didn’t she?
While I had brought her along to track Lochter’s whereabouts, I also wanted her to witness the terrifying might of the Mad Butcher.
Both Nella and Fenry, who had been summoned mid-battle, would now understand how dangerous Kal was to Beneta.
Even without Lochter’s testimony, those two would persuade the other races.
The problem was that their persuasion was no longer about preparation—it was now about war.
“The war has already begun.”
If I had simply rescued Lochter and left quietly, there might have been a brief period of peace.
But this last battle had changed everything.
Jack and Howell were dead, and the Hound Corps, Blyer’s primary force, had been wiped out. The shamans’ stronghold had suffered heavy damage as well.
Do you think the Mad Butcher will let this slide?
With Blyer’s army stationed near Beneta’s border, Kal would undoubtedly retaliate to recover from this blow.
Even if an all-out war hadn’t officially begun, an invisible war was already in motion.
If we waited idly, we’d be the ones to suffer.
We needed to strike first.
“I have to shake Blyer to its core.”
Kal and his main forces were still in Etor, and the remaining defensive forces in his territory had been annihilated by us.
With Blyer’s army focused on the border, the territory itself was now a defenseless shell.
The problem was that we weren’t the only ones aware of this.
The slave hunters.
They wouldn’t miss such an opportunity.
“Hyah!”
Lochter’s voice was sharp with urgency. Ever since seeing the slaughtered village, his expression had been grim, devoid of its usual composure.
The carriage carrying us followed the trail left by the hunters as we departed the ruined village.
In southern Blyer, the Korun River, with its abundant fresh water, was surrounded by nurous small villages.
After traveling for a while, we arrived at a second village.
The sight of thick black smoke curling into the sky told we were already too late.
This village, too, had been ravaged by the hunters.
Under Karl’s direction, we continued tracking the hunters’ trail.
A third village.
A fourth.
With each village we visited, Lochter’s expression darkened further.
His anger seed to have burned out, leaving behind only a hollow despair.
At the fifth village, we stopped the carriage to investigate.
This one was several tis larger than the previous villages and appeared to have resisted. The presence of a local militia was evident from the scattered bodies of slave hunters.
But once again, no survivors remained.
One odd detail stood out: the number of dead villagers was similar to the previous villages, despite this being a larger settlent.
Hundreds of people were missing.
Karl, examining the bodies of the dead hunters, cursed under his breath and stood up.
“I didn’t expect things to go this way.”
“What do you an?” I asked.
“There are a lot of hunters here that I’d sent away earlier.”
“Sent away?”
“To prevent them from consolidating, I spread rumors to divide them. But now, they’ve regrouped with new recruits to pull this off.”
Karl’s expression was one of disbelief.
“These guys are mostly second-rate at best. The capable ones would’ve all died in the Territory of the Dead, right?”
“Not all of them,” I said. “The smarter ones probably fled the mont they saw the shamans.”
“Still, what kind of guts does it take to do this? Aren’t they afraid of Blyer?”
“They know the territory is defenseless.”
“And how do they know that?”
“Most hunters acted as Blyer’s lackeys. If they worked under Kal, they’d have access to his information.”
Even fragnted intelligence could form a clear picture when pieced together.
Add to that the massive number of hunters drawn by the 1,000,000 gold bounty, and this outco was inevitable.
“They’re relying on numbers,” I said.
Humans, when gathered in large groups, often found courage they didn’t have alone.
Having failed to claim the bounty, they weren’t about to let this opportunity slip away.
Karl surveyed the scorched village and sighed.
“All the n were killed, and they only took young won and children. If they’ve captured hundreds, then their numbers must be even greater. The problem is that this isn’t just one group.”
He pointed at multiple tracks on the ground.
At least three different trails led out from the village in different directions.
“They’ve split up. The larger the group, the smaller each person’s share, so they’ve divided into smaller parties.”
“Which ans more damage overall.”
“They’ll retreat soon, right? We’re not that far from Blyer.”
“No. They’ll keep looting as they head toward Blyer.”
“That’s insane. Capturing Blyer’s own people and selling them in Blyer City? Who would even buy them?”
“The Black Market.”
“…Ah.”
Karl let out a bitter laugh as the pieces clicked into place.
“Damn. Of course. Slave hunters are always connected to the Black Market.”
The Black Market was perpetually thirsty for new slaves.
The hunters likely knew the routes connected to the market. Once they sold their captives and disappeared into neighboring territories, they’d be impossible to track.
Blyer wouldn’t dare confront the Black Market directly over this.
“Do you know any routes to the Black Market?”
“? I’m only familiar with Etor, where my old base was. I don’t know much about Blyer’s side. Why are you asking? You’re not thinking of confronting the Black Market… right?”
“Not yet,” I replied.
There was no need to clash with them.
We just needed to catch the hunters before they made the sale.
“…‘Not yet,’ huh? You’ve got a scary way of putting things.”
Karl shook his head with a wry grin.
“Catching the hunters and interrogating them will be faster.”
“Let’s follow the trail. We can figure things out once we catch them.”
I returned to the carriage while Karl went to find Lochter.
He spotted him standing amidst the dead villagers, motionless.
Karl clicked his tongue softly.
The once-reliable figure now looked so desolate.
Perhaps because they had survived death together, Karl felt like he understood Lochter’s emotions.
Guilt.
On Wailing Hill, Lochter had stood atop a mountain of corpses, the aftermath of Kal’s massacre of anyone associated with him.
Now, Karl thought he saw the sa expression Lochter had worn back then—the desire to stop others from dying because of him.
Arthur had called him a hero.
But perhaps this was what it ant to walk the path of a hero.
Karl couldn’t imagine the weight Lochter bore.
Suddenly, a faint scream broke the silence.
“Help!”
Karl froze, hand half-raised to call out to Lochter.
The sound was faint—barely audible over the deathly stillness of the village.
Lochter vanished in an instant, leaving only a cloud of dust in his wake.
“Lo-Lochter!”
Karl called after him but couldn’t keep up with the knight’s incredible speed.
I approached, curious about the commotion.
“What’s going on?”
“There was a voice,” Karl said, taking off at a run.
I followed closely behind.
The broken village gave way to a vast field.
In the distance, we spotted a group circling a single carriage.
At first, it looked like the carriage was fleeing from the riders, but that wasn’t the case.
“Please… spare !”
The desperate screams weren’t cries for help—they were pitiful pleas for rcy directed at the mounted hunters.
The mounted hunters laughed cruelly, circling the carriage as if it were so twisted ga.
Occasionally, they lazily shot arrows, more for sport than necessity.
Those tied to the wheels of the carriage could only tremble in terror, powerless as arrows pierced them.
They were slowly dying, reduced to entertainnt for the hunters.
“Karl.”
“…What?”
At my call, Karl responded in a low voice, his eyes locked on the hunters with a feral glint.
His lips were drawn tight, and the dagger in his hand trembled with suppressed fury. He looked ready to tear through the hunters at any mont.
This wasn’t like the calm, calculating Karl I knew.
Was it Resonance with Lochter that made him this emotional?
Or was he simply empathizing with Lochter’s rage?
It didn’t matter.
Those hunters were already dead n.
“Kraaaaahhhh!!!”
Lochter’s roar of fury echoed across the field.
I sighed, summoning the Ring of Blood into my hand.
“I’ll leave one alive. Drag him back for questioning.”
“Damn it…” Karl muttered. “Fine.”
Monts later—
“W-what the hell is that guy?!”
“Kill him! Hurry!”
“Wait, stop—Gaaaaahhhh!”
The first thing I saw was the glint of the Aura Sword as it tore through the air.
Limbs were severed and hurled skyward.
Lochter charged like a madman, his sword gleaming as it cleaved through the hunters with savage precision.
Every swing of his blade brought a rain of blood.
The hunters, seeing the power of the Aura Sword, panicked. They turned their horses and tried to flee, but it was too late.
A shadow of death lood behind them.
Lochter swung again and again.
“S-spare —”
“Shut up.”
He sliced through the pleading man’s hands, then split his head in two before moving on to the next target.
There was no rcy in Lochter’s movents.
Every hunter he could see, he slaughtered without hesitation.
“Graaaghhh! Kraghh!”
anwhile, Karl dragged the hunter I had incapacitated.
The man’s Achilles tendons had been precisely severed, leaving a long, bloody trail as Karl hauled him forward.
Karl threw him at my feet and pressed his boot into the hunter’s ruined ankle.
The man scread, trembling as he looked up at .
“Are you the leader?”
“W-what? I—Aaghhh!”
“Do you want to live? Then answer my questions.”
“Y-yes! Yes, I’m the leader!”
I had targeted the one riding the largest horse, and my guess had been correct.
Perhaps driven mad by the pain, he responded to every question without hesitation.
If he hesitated, Karl would jab or stomp on him with the dagger, forcing out more screams—and answers.
Finally, I crouched in front of the trembling hunter.
“Tell everything you know about the Black Market routes.”
The man’s face paled even further.
He babbled out the information, his words spilling over one another in panic.
When he had nothing left to say, Karl ended his suffering with a swift stab to the back of the neck.
“…Hah… hah…”
Lochter, drenched in blood from head to toe, staggered toward the carriage.
His face, clothes, and sword were all stained red.
Even the captives tied to the wheels recoiled in fear, trembling as they stared at him.
Lochter raised his sword.
With a single swing, he severed the ropes binding the captives to the wheels, setting them free.
But none of them rose.
Instead, they fell to their knees, bowing their heads and begging for their lives.
Lochter stood silently, staring at them with a heavy gaze.
Finally, he spoke, his voice low but steady.
“I am Lochter Felice, forr captain of the knights.”
In Blyer, there was no one who didn’t know his na.
Since Kal’s rise to power, many of the territory’s residents had co to yearn for the days of Lochter’s leadership.
His na carried imnse weight.
Among the captives, a few dared to raise their heads slightly, eting Lochter’s gaze.
They had only ever heard stories of his deeds and reputation. They didn’t know his face or his features.
A man drenched in blood, wearing ragged clothes, and wielding a broken sword stood before them.
None of the villagers dared speak.
But then—
“I will help you.”
“Ah…”
Lochter’s unwavering eyes held a sincerity that broke through their fear.
“My daughter was taken…”
“Please save my child! Spare her life!”
“Please, I beg you!”
The villagers, tears streaming down their faces, began pleading desperately.
Lochter listened intently to their cries.
Rescuing their loved ones.
Returning the captives to their families.
Avenging the neighbors, friends, and family mbers who had been cruelly killed.
It wasn’t sothing he could do alone.
As he considered the overwhelming task ahead, a familiar face ca to mind.
Slowly, Lochter turned.
“We’ve got a lead. Let’s go.”
The approaching voice brought a bitter smile to his lips.
Arthur Clayton.
“We’ll hunt those bastards down to the last one.”
Karl Bastain.
Yes. He had them—his comrades.
Lochter looked at the two of us and nodded resolutely.
With us by his side, it felt like there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish.
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