Ch 46

The Holy King called Merlin and Arietta to the office.

"Hmm? Why are your legs shaking so much?" he asked.

Arietta smiled. "Father, you told me to get close to the military retainers, so I tried getting closer to the knights. It seems I went a bit too far with my physical training."

Merlin was worried that Mordred was already influencing Arietta. It seemed like she was already more battle-hardened.

"Oh, it is good to be sincere in your efforts, but take good care of your body, too."

"I will keep that in mind."

With a benevolent smile, the Holy King took out a map of the Northern Continent from his pocket space and unfolded it.

"As you know, the border front has been pushed back little by little over the past twenty years."

The border of the Holy Kingdom was quite wide, from the area connected to the Alps all the way to the peninsula, well above Olympus Forest. Although it was such a wide border, there were not as many areas as one might think that were active battlegrounds. Not all sections of the border were adjacent to an enemy country, and the Alps in the west were called the Land of Monsters, barely inhabitable with no real need to be protected. In addition, the topography of the eastern peninsula made it extremely difficult to invade, with its rugged mountains. Therefore, the route through which enemies could enter was limited to the center. However, if the center was penetrated, they would have to give up the territory all the way to the center of the Alps and the vicinity of the Olympus Forest.

"If the front is breached, up to here," said Arrieta, pointing to a spot on the map, "the northern part of the Asteria territories will fall into the hands of the enemy."

Merlin recalled the name ‘Warrant’ when he saw the area Arietta pointed to. Far from being created yet, it was a name that he would never hear for the rest of his life, no matter how famous his Fairy tribe was for their longevity.

"In the worst case, yes."

Now that more than half of the power of the Holy Kingdom was gathered on the front, it would be impossible to pierce through it, even with all the might of the Giant tribe. Even if there was another strong fighter like the king of the Giant tribe, war was ultimately a battle between nations. There was no meaning if you couldn’t maintain the occupation.

"It is about time for the enemy to move, so you should manage the border for the time being.”

Sending Arietta to the front was mainly to keep her away from the bloodshed that was to occur in the capital, but it was also to send troops, as it was time for the invasion to begin again. War didn’t mean there was fighting year-round. If that was the case, even the victorious country would be left in ruins.

The Knights of the Round Table, led by Arietta, headed to an ancient castle in the Alps. It was a good opportunity for her to obtain merit as a successor.

* * *

Mordred threw a pebble at a charging Orc from on top of his horse, hitting the Orc square on the head.

"Old man-nim, aren’t we on our way to the base? Why are there so many monsters?"

They had already encountered twenty-three monster colonies on their journey. Among them were not only common species like orcs, but also rarer, dangerous colonies like a wyvern's nest.

Merlin watched as the Knights of the Round Table annihilated the rest of the orc colony from the carriage.

"There are a lot of monsters because we are in the Alps, which is called the Land of Monsters." he replied.

The amount of monsters per area in the Alps was several times higher than that of Olympus Forest, which was called the worst Land of Monsters. It seemed like a hundred times more in Mordred's eyes. It wasn’t called a monster heaven for no reason.

"So why is the base located in this horrible place?" asked Mordred.

“Precisely because it's a horrible place." Merlin replied.

Mordred looked confusedly at Merlin, who chuckled heartily. "If it were an ordinary army, of course it would not be stationed in such a place. But aren't we the nation's strongest knights? Would we stay in a regular place?"

Arietta leaned out from inside the carriage. "Do not listen to Sir Merlin. The reason why the base is stationed in the Alps is to maintain stability behind the front line."

"Ah!” Mordred exclaimed, suddenly understanding. “Indeed, it's an easy position to eradicate monsters regularly and prevent them from trying to get to the front, or to the citizens."

Since there were many monsters living in the Alps, it was common for colonies that were defeated in territorial battles to migrate. While the monsters looked for a new home, if they were to get behind the frontline where the troops were, or blocked supply routes, it was inevitable that problems would occur.

"That is right. As expected, Sir Mordred has a quick mind." said Merlin.

"Ahem! Although I didn’t study, I've been told that I am smart!" Mordred announced.

Yvain and Ovain burst into laughter.

"Hahahaha! Who hasn't heard that before from guys who only fight and eat for a living?"

"Hahaha! Right, our mom told us we’re smart, too!"

The twins had grown much more friendly with Mordred since he had beaten them.

"Shut up, you punks!" shouted Mordred, swinging his arm around to shoo away the twins.

Tristan, who was shooting an arrow next to Merlin, chuckled. "Why? It's not like they’re wrong. ‘Being smart, despite not having studied’, these are words people use to comfort brutish people like us."

"Shut up! Focus on shooting your arrows faster!"

"Hmmph! There's no one left to shoot!"

As Tristan pointed out, they had made quick work of the Orc colony.

"Now, since the orc by-products are useless, let's get moving! Our ancient castle that feels like home is not far off!"

As they rode on their horses, they began to see the head of the spire of the ancient castle in the distance.

* * *

Feliva, the Witch of Envy, smiled lightly as she looked at the far-south front. "There must be plenty of productive land with granaries past there, right?"

Malefebrin, the Witch of Greed, nodded. "Isn't that why the Giants want that land?"

The country ruled by Giants was a particularly barren region in the Northern Continent. The soil was better in the north as well, so it would have been fine for them to march in either direction. The reason why the Giants moved southward, towards the Holy Kingdom, ruled by the Holy tribe, was simple: the soil quality of the southern land was overwhelmingly better than that of the northern land.

"I’m really jealous."

Among the witches, there were the skeptics, part of the anti-war faction, and those who were enthused about war, in the pro-war faction. The Witch of Envy was one of the representatives of the anti-war faction, but now the line between the factions was becoming blurred. Enough resentment had already accumulated to the point that things wouldn’t be resolved unless one side was wiped out. The Witch of Envy was sad about that fact, but she had no choice but to raise her magic staff. They couldn’t just let themselves die.

"All troops, march!"

At the cry of the Giant general, an army of ordinary people began to move.

* * *

Upon arriving at the ancient castle, Merlin immediately took out the sealed familiars from his laboratory and released them in all directions. Small insects, created as familiars by Druid magic, scattered throughout the Alps, gathering information.

"As expected of a crazy place like this, the number of monsters has grown ridiculously."

In awe, Merlin called the executives of the Round Table together, around a long table with a map of the Alps. Arietta, the general manager of their schedule, also participated, so her escort, Mordred, naturally joined the meeting despite being a new recruit. Mordred, Percival, Merlin, Caldo Granant, Bors, Gwalchavad, Palamedes, and Caradoc sat in a circle, with Arietta at the head of the table.

"Long time no see, Sir Caldo Granant." said Arietta.

Caldo Granant saluted. "It is good to see you, Holy Princess."

Caldo Granant of the Hunter tribe was Merlin's right-hand man. He resided in the ancient castle where Merlin's workshop was located. Due to the location of the ancient castle, Caldo Granant's was one of the strongest members of the Round Table.

Mordred stared at the Hunter tribe knight with sparkling eyes. "How about a round later?"

"Good. The struggle between the strong makes the blood of a warrior boil."

The two battle races shook hands with each other immediately, with no introduction, and burned their fighting spirits. Merlin sighed and shook his hand to blow away the martial auras that the two were emitting.

"That's why battle maniacs... You guys can do that separately later, let’s set a schedule for subjugation first."

Merlin marked the enemy's locations on the map and used magic to display moving images based on the information sent by the familiars. Everyone leaned in, focused.

"There are thirty orcs colonies that need to be eradicated right now, and quite a few straggling ogres can be seen as well. We can also see a few of the giant ogre species, Gogmagog.”

"That's ordinary."

Caradoc, familiar with these monsters, quickly determined the order of subjugation and drew lines to indicate the routes for the knights to follow.

“Hold on. It’s been ordinary so far, but there's a problem." said Merlin, switching the moving image to a different familiar. It displayed a monster that none of them had ever seen before.

"What is that? A giant marten?” asked Percival.

It looked like a marten, but it had three tails and a strange mane on the back of its neck.

Merlin shrugged, "I don't know either. Not even I know every monster.”

Everyone stared silently at the unknown monster. When hunting a new monster for the first time, you had to be careful to avoid injury.

Then Mordred said with his chin in his hands, “That's a Jataturatu.”

Percival looked at Mordred, confused. “Jata… what?”

Mordred looked at Percival with an equally confused look on his face. "Jataturatu. Oh, is it called something different outside Olympus Forest?"

Merlin looked at Mordred curiously. "Do you know the characteristics of this monster?"

"Well, I know because I go out to catch them sometimes. They aren’t that dangerous if you watch out for the stinger on the bottom of the tail. They’re quite fast for their size, so it's easy for even a skilled hunter to lose it if he doesn't prepare an ambush at the escape route. That’s about it, I think?"

Mordred’s determination of the difficulty was based on the skill of Crow hunters.

"In Olympus Forest, you can often see them near the dryad colonies. They taste okay."

Merlin’s eyes glistened and he pulled up another moving image.

"Then do you know what this is?"

"Uh… The name was oturi-something, but the thorns on its legs make for good arrow material, so we often hunted them in my hometown. They aren’t tasty, but the adults liked them, saying it was a healthy food."

"Then what about this? And this?"

Merlin continued to pull up more images for Mordred. Mordred answered each question with detail, recalling the memories of hunting around Olympus Forest with his older brother.

"What should we do to hunt this guy?"

"Oh! That’s a dragon killer, isn’t it? That's a very rare guy! For dragon killers, you can just dig deep pits and lure them out with truffles, then you can easily hunt them before they release their poison. There is a venomous gland in the syrinx, but if you remove it right away, you can eat the other parts deliciously. The recommended part is the rib meat."

"What about this guy?"

"Ape rotence, he has a good sense of smell and has wings, so he's tricky. However, the weak point is between his eyes, so if you shoot him from more than one kilometer away while he sleeps, you can easily catch him. However, they have a strong odor so you can’t eat them."

Mordred recited the ecology and weaknesses of various rare monsters and talked in detail about how to hunt them. Caradoc, who was working on the subjugation, flipped through his notebook wildly, scribbling down as much information as he could.

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Merlin said to Arietta, "It seems it would be best for Sir Mordred to join the subjugation."

Arietta nodded. "I think so, too."

"Don't even think about following him."

At Merlin's warning, Arietta avoided eye contact.