In The Name Of Ingrad! (25)

The man before them was an existence called a legend among the people of the Empire, so everyone had no choice but to look at Archduke Pearl and grow tense.

Moreover, the opponent before them did not seem to have any intention of going easy on them just because they admired him, so everyone had no choice but to focus on Archduke Pearl.

“I wonder if all of you are not too tense.”

At Archduke Pearl’s words, Viscount Muriel had no choice but to bitterly curl up the corner of his mouth.

“With you standing before us, wouldn’t it be strange if we, as Imperial citizens, were not tense?”

Archduke Pearl laughed heartily. It did not match the situation at all, but Viscount Muriel even envied his composure.

However, they had already spoken enough, so silence soon followed, and the first one to step forward in the field where tension flowed down was Viscount Muriel.

“I will take the first move.”“I will gladly yield it.”

In the duel that began like that, Viscount Muriel had no intention of playing a strong hand from the start, so he operated his aura with a probing mind and began circling around Archduke Pearl.

He moved his steps calmly and looked for an opening in Archduke Pearl. Perhaps because he was truly a seasoned knight?

Not only could Muriel not see even a single light opening, but he also realized that the parts he thought were openings were quite terrifying traps that could tighten around his limbs, and he was in a situation where he learned and realized many things.

‘As expected, his fame was not empty…’

The difference between looking from afar and actually approaching and looking up close was clear, and Viscount Muriel learned how much of a giant Archduke Pearl had become when seen with a sword in hand. However, for some reason, he thought he was not afraid.

‘How would he compare to him…?’

Viscount Muriel compared Archduke Pearl to the man in his head, the one called “Wijel,” and thought that perhaps…

It was then.

“I do not know what you are thinking… but your spirit has changed into something quite pleasant. May I know the reason?”

At Archduke Pearl’s sudden words, Muriel recalled what he had just realized and spoke.

“I thought that you were not necessarily the largest giant in the world.”

“….?”

As Archduke Pearl’s expression turned curious at the unexpected answer, Viscount Muriel spoke to him.

“In a not-so-distant country… there is quite a big figure. In my duel against him… I could not pass fifty exchanges. That was half a year ago. If it were now… I wonder whether I could endure one hundred exchanges, but he is someone I would like to challenge once more.”

However, the person Archduke Pearl was thinking of and the person Viscount Muriel was thinking of could not be the same.

‘Has he faced the Sword Saint…?’

Around the time Archduke Pearl was becoming famous as the Sword of the Empire, the Sword Saint was already a great swordswoman who bore the title “Sword Saint” from that time onward. Archduke Pearl had always felt curiosity toward that fame.

‘Was she said to have gone missing…?’

He briefly thought of Atoon’s great swordswoman and drew his sword. If Muriel had failed to pass fifty exchanges, then indirectly, through a duel with Viscount Muriel, would he not be able to learn the gap between her and Archduke Pearl himself? Thinking that, he smiled.

With each holding their own thoughts and smiles, the two rapidly closed the distance using the roar and impact of a rock flying toward them from afar as the signal.

The first one to extend his sword was, as expected, Viscount Muriel. Archduke Pearl kept exactly to the meaning of yielding the first move, lightly avoided several attacks swung while measuring the distance, and as he examined his opponent’s movements, speed, and potential, Archduke Pearl curled up the corner of his mouth and raised the Sword of the Empire.

Viscount Muriel could feel that no power was present there, but because he knew that “aura” was not the only foundation and power that made up the world, he did not let his guard down and examined the sword coming to meet him.

Since aura had gathered on Viscount Muriel’s sword, if their swords clashed, then no matter how fine a sword it was, Muriel judged that it would have no choice but to be easily cut apart. So Viscount Muriel examined Archduke Pearl’s intent, and Archduke Pearl, wearing an even deeper smile at Viscount Muriel’s cautious action, quickly closed the distance with him.

The two of them suddenly became close enough for their breaths to reach each other, but even though they were this close, they instinctively knew that they could not easily hit or cut one another.

Viscount Muriel’s sword swung and aimed for Archduke Pearl’s chest. However, Archduke Pearl did not take his eyes off Viscount Muriel’s blade for even an instant at that close distance, dodged it by a hair’s breadth, and punched the side that Viscount Muriel exposed by swinging his sword.

However, in that brief gap, Viscount Muriel used aura to create an impossible movement and pulled his sword back. Since it was an unexpected response, Archduke Pearl withdrew his fist and took one step back, then the moment his foot touched the ground, he approached again as if bouncing and thrust the Sword of the Empire in.

It was fast and concise. Moreover, even if it was a sword without aura, it was extremely easy for a blade to dig into the body. No matter how much of a Master one was, one could not train even the skin to be like steel, so Viscount Muriel hurriedly retreated, and Archduke Pearl pursued closely with the thought that he would not let this go, making thrust after thrust.

The offense and defense continued quickly at such a short distance that the knights nearby could only see the two people as dancing.

However, the problem was that Archduke Pearl, who had composure even amid this, was entering the duel while remembering the number of exchanges.

In terms of expression as well, Viscount Muriel was sweating heavily from tension, while Archduke Pearl was relaxed from beginning to end without shedding a single drop of sweat, and that was a point where the difference could be understood at once. However, when ordinary knights saw it, it was nothing different from immortals playing around.

It was a truth they could not notice because the gap was too severe.

Meanwhile, on another battlefield now…

“It is the black flag…”

At Demina’s words, I looked at the black flag Wijel had raised. It meant that he would fire cluster shells. No one could predict what result would be revealed by this one order.

However, one thing was certain: that one shot would not be simple at all.

‘Richard said he had made an absurd weapon…’

It was something written in Ulde’s report. It had simply been a report about cluster shells that had been enlarged through improvements so that whale beastkin could throw them, and after receiving that content, I had wondered whether something like that was truly possible.

I had only thought of them as bombs that were thrown.

However, although I only thought they were a little unusual in that they were throwing bombs for extra-large whale beastkin over three meters tall, the result had also made me wonder because they had shown an outrageous explosion powerful enough to cleanly annihilate thousands.

And now, the opportunity to confirm it had come.

Rather than “curiosity,” I wanted to know the truth.

‘The report would not contain lies, but they said there is a difference between seeing something on the battlefield and writing it up in a report… Seeing it in person is important.’

That was my judgment, and along with Demina saying that the firing order had been given, the third magic shell that crossed the battlefield was fired.

It was a tense situation. From the outside, it was a shell with no particular features.

When the Demonic Tribe saw it, it was powerful, but they seemed to have found a way to respond. However, I merely watched, thinking that this one would be different from those so far.

Meanwhile, Helhaumer gritted his teeth as he looked at the black spheres flying through the air, and hurriedly filled his voice with magic power and shouted.

“Deploy the defensive barrier! Widen its range!”

“If we do that, the defensive power will…”

“I told you not to talk back to me!!”

With that angry roar, a defensive barrier soon began spreading over the heads of the Demonic Tribe. It was a defensive barrier that had blocked two attacks.

Some damage had occurred, but to Helhaumer, the lowest-grade Demonic Tribe were nothing more than consumables that were not even treated as combat power.

‘The only ones to protect are the nobles. As long as we can get close, no matter how many die, we will make them pay the price. And… we must collect a cruel blood price.’

It could be called a reckless charge and an ignorant operation, but this had been the basic framework of every strategy the Demonic Tribe had carried out until now.

Even if they were the same Demonic Tribe, if they were not nobles, that could be called the limit of the Demonic Tribe, who could think of them only as consumables.

However, since the Demonic Tribe had reigned over the human world with this, Helhaumer thought it would work even now. He thought that they were merely being hit because the enemy’s attack power was somewhat unexpected and unusual.

Soon, the black spheres flew through the air and reached overhead, but unlike until now, when he saw them breaking apart piece by piece in the air with small explosive sounds, he could not help but feel puzzled.

“What in the world is that…?”

Thinking that he could not understand it, he raised his head and looked at the defensive barrier. The moment one of those fragments fell onto the defensive barrier, something unbelievable happened.

With a thunderous “kwaaaang!!” roar, it created a small flaw in the defensive barrier. However, the problem was that there were countless small fragments like that overhead.

Recalling the fact that one black sphere had split into what seemed like hundreds of fragments, Helhaumer’s face turned pale and he hurriedly shouted.

“Add more magic power!!! Hurry!!!”

That was the only shout he could respond with, and soon, the Demonic Tribe also sensed that something was wrong and hurriedly squeezed out all their magic power and poured it into the defensive barrier. However, because of the fragments that had already begun falling and exploding, the scratches quickly became cracks, and those cracks gnawed away at the barrier, driving it to the brink of shattering.

Helhaumer could feel that the scent of “death” was thickly rising from the bodies of the Demonic Tribe, who were experiencing death in real time.

‘Just what… is that supposed to be?’

It was an incomprehensible weapon that he could not even imagine, and its power was also so absurdly strong that he had to tremble at how powerful it was, in contrast to the previous two attacks.

“The, the barrier is breaking!!”

“Defend yourselves! You will have to use every bit of power you can!!”

At Helhaumer’s shout, and perhaps because all the fragments had just fallen…

He had no choice but to watch as the defensive barrier collapsed and flames poured down toward the ground.

‘Ah… Demon God.’

A large number of people from the East Continent were mobilized to collect the corpses of the Demonic Tribe.

It had been a day since the Demonic Tribe’s attack. While there were Demonic Tribe members who had fled with serious injuries, the place where the majority of the Demonic Tribe had met death was filled with bleakness.

However, not a single human walking there had a gloomy expression. Instead, they looked exhilarated, and among them, one man was speaking to a figure who had pulled a robe deeply over their head.

“I did not expect the strength of a country called Ingrad to be this powerful.”

The person who heard those words nodded and looked at the distant fortress.

“The King of Ingrad, who created a castle like that… in only a few days… must be more than a great mage, right?”

A rather delicate voice flowed out, and the man answered the question that had come from inside that hood.

“I do not know much about magic either. I merely… live as the sword that protects you.”

“If we had their power, we might… perhaps…”

The voice inside the robe could not finish speaking and closed their mouth. However, because that feeling had been conveyed, the man spoke.

“When the time comes… we will surely find it. The glory of the past…”