Chapter 67: The Road to King (7)

***

Fihatri really did lead his soldiers and retreated as he declared, Yusen was impressed with him.

“Wow, there are nobles like that too.”

Givens felt the same way.

“We have things to do. Leave the protection of the territory to the guards and let’s go in the mountains.”

Yusen unfolded a map in his office at the lord’s castle.

“According to His Excellency, it’s somewhere around here. We need to focus on this area and see what we can find. First, let’s talk to the people who know the geography of the area.”

Erhin only knew the approximate location from the game. Of course, there was still a big difference between knowing and not knowing. Fortunately, he was able to narrow down the range to a certain extent, and he made the map for Yusen.

“Gather the village chiefs.”

“Understood.”

Givens acted on Yusen’s orders. Thanks to Fihatri’s efforts to calm the people, things went on unhindered. Sometime later, three old village chiefs came to visit Yusen.

“Have you seen any iron in these mountains?”

It was an isolated territory so it was hard to imagine that the information would leak out. Even if it leaked it would probably be after Erhin declared his independence.

For now, the soldiers of Lunan couldn’t be informed, but they had to get the cooperation of the people, that was Erhin’s directive.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of such a thing before. It’s just that the area is……”

“What’s in that place?”

Yusen realized that there was something wrong from the look on the village chief and asked back. Then the village headman shook his head and answered.

“I’ve never been there. It’s a mountain tribe camp.”

“A mountain tribe?”

“Yes, it has always been their territory. It has been passed down from generation to generation that we should stay away from that place, so we have never been to that area.”

Hearing this, Yusen suddenly stood up, something clicked in his mind. Even more so because the area where the mountain tribe was said to be located matched the area that Erhin had mentioned.

Yusen asked the village chief for details on how to get to the mountain where the tribe was located, and left with Givens.

“What’s a mountain tribe?”

“It’s an indigenous tribe. They’re guarding the place, so there must be something there. Let’s hurry.”

“I didn’t realize the captain was such a smart guy……Are you impersonating His Excellency……?”

“Shut up and follow me.”

Givens got hit once again for talking nonsense. Struggling up the mountain, they finally stepped into the area the village chief had mentioned. Then three men with their lower bodies covered and faces painted green, came down from the trees and blocked the way.

“Karagatell!”

“What’s he saying?”

Yusen and Givens couldn’t understand what the men were saying but they weren’t friendly.

“Captain, from the vibe I’m getting, I guess they’re telling us to get lost right now.”

“I suppose you could say that.”

At the same time, the mountain people attacked. Yusen had no choice but to draw his sword.

“Givens, don’t kill them. If you do, things could get very complicated.”

As soon as Yusen gave the order carefully, the battle began. A warlord of Yusen’s caliber is quite a powerful warrior, the three mountain tribesmen were knocked out in no time.

“Who are you people? How dare you attack us!?”

At that moment, another man came down from the tree tops. This time the man was, fortunately, speaking the official language of the continent.

“It was a misunderstanding! They attacked us first, so we had no choice!”

“You were the ones who entered our territory!”

Eventually, a battle ensued again. The man who attacked them this time was different in size from the previous men. Not only that, but his strength was also different. For a while, Yusen fought the man with his sword. When Givens tried to help him, Yusen immediately shouted.

“Don’t come any closer! Stay there and watch!”

After a long battle, the winner was Yusen, but he was very tired.

“I mean you no harm. We just came here to ask you some questions!”

Yusen said to the man he had defeated while catching his breath.

“Captain, you’re looking even more regal in that black armor!”

“I see. Huh. No, no, no, no. I don’t care about that. Did you see that, Givens?”

“What?”

“The iron armor the man is wearing. To make iron that thin, that’s a hell of a technique.”

“What? That’s iron?”

Givens shouted in surprise. Then the man who had fallen suddenly got up and ran away.

“Captain, he’s gone. Let’s go after him!”

Givens said, but Yusen shook his head.

“It’s a trap, no matter how you look at it. There’s no point in following them.”

“But……”

“We’re going around that way.”

The two of them took a detour and headed towards the direction where the mountain people had disappeared. They wandered through the mountains for hours, and then came to a strange place.

“What is this place……?”

In front of them was a huge stone wall. In addition, there was a mana formation drawn on it.

“How the hell did something like this end up in the mountains?”

When Yusen tried to approach mana formation with a surprised look on his face.

“Barkarkarkha!”

Another group of mountain people appeared on the other side. This time, they were quite huge.

“We can’t kill those guys, let’s retreat for now!”

Fortunately, by taking a detour, they were not surrounded and were able to escape along the path they had come. Once they were some distance away, the mountain tribesmen stopped chasing them, as if they couldn’t leave their own area.

“Givens.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you tired?”

“Of course I am.”

“But you’ll have to move. You must return to Aintorian immediately.”

“What’s the rush?”

“There’s something strange about the place they’re guarding. Even a mana formation was present there, this is beyond my abilities. So you’ll have to go and inform His Excellency. You can’t leave such an important job to someone else, can you?”

“That’s true, but…….What do you intend to do in the meantime?”

“I need to gather more information. That’s why you have to follow His Excellency’s instructions. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

Givens nodded at Yusen’s order.

***

The size of the mansions of the nobles in the royal capital differed depending on their rank. The mansion in front of the royal castle belonged to the duke. The more powerful they were, the closer their mansions were located to the royal castle.

On the other hand, the less powerful nobles had their mansions on the outskirts of the royal capital. The place I visited was a noble’s mansion in the suburbs. It was not an official visit, that’s why I asked Yurasia for help. She had a special ability that used mana to move through walls. I used that power to sneak into the mansion’s office.

“What are you going to do here?”

“I have to finish this.”

Yurasia shook her head in disgust and disappeared from the window. She had seen too much of Lunan’s dirty side lately and was sick of everything. Zint was standing quietly behind me like a reliable guard.

I waited for a while, and then someone came into the office. At the same time, the lights in the room came on. Only the maid in charge of cleaning and the Earl himself are allowed to enter his office and cleaning is usually done during the day. Naturally, it was the Earl who came into the room at night.

“Who are you?”

As soon as Hayna shouted, she was immediately attacked by Zint. He brought her to her knees and instantly gagged her mouth. Zint’s speed was evolving more and more in proportion to his growing martial force. At this rate, it won’t be long before he catches up to the speed of Ganev who tormented us in Bridget.

“It’s been a long time, Madam.”

When she noticed me, Hayna started struggling but Zint pressed her even harder on the ground.

“You’re in trouble. I can’t believe you hired someone to kill me.”

Not wanting to make a scene, I whispered in her ear. She glared at me enraged. I don’t know why she’s angry in this situation when I should be.

“Why did you do that?”

Of course, she couldn’t answer my question because she had her mouth covered.

“You’ve done more research on my exploits than anyone else. I’m sure you knew that I wasn’t the kind of person who would be killed by an assassin’s squad. When I looked at the ledger, I found that you promised a tremendous amount of money for my death.”

Hayna twisted around with a surprised look on her face as I spoke.

“Still, you’re intelligent enough to have served as a military strategist. I admire you for that.”

Hayna tried her best to say something, but Zint wasn’t going to remove the gag because I didn’t want to listen to her bullshit.

“You also knew that Ronen’s name was written at the top of the ledger. Was your real goal to turn Ronen against me? Couldn’t you have guessed that I’d come to kill you after seeing the ledger?”

Hayna flinched even more as I unleashed my killing intent.

“Ronen doesn’t like me, he’s just using me. If he knew that fact, he would have wanted you to return even more. If Ronen favors you again, you will return to the position of strategist and rebuild your family. It’s understandable that you feel that way, but you need to use your head. You’ve chosen the wrong man. Wouldn’t it be better to be liked by me than Ronen?”

After I said that much, I removed the gag from her mouth. I didn’t care if she screamed. I’ve said all I needed to say.

“It’s not true that your relationship with His Highness the Duke has fallen apart! His Excellency Elheat was banished to the border, and the Duke didn’t find that it was you who gave him the ledger.”

“I see.”

As I suspected, Elheat didn’t tell him that I gave him the ledger.