Chapter 257

Bloom in Difficulty (3)

“The moment our eyes met, my skin crawled! I thought that perhaps I would die that day.”

It had been a few days already, and the ranger spoke of the time he had met Adelia, his face pale as if it had just happened. He had come as a messenger to the fort, way ahead of the main contingent.

“I don’t know, but some of the lads might have soiled their pants.”

I sympathized with that feeling.

A woman standing in the middle of a pile of crushed corpses, and no ordinary woman, but one with a coat of blood all over her body and on her longsword, with bits of flesh still clinging to the blade — how terrifying it had to be. And worse, it

The rangers had fought countless battles alongside her; they knew how terrifying she was. Adelia was the Sword Master who would shed tears even while her sword tore through hard oak and leather like pieces of paper.

Once Adelia’s eyes turn, creatures around her perish as she becomes a berserker who does not stop until the rivers of blood run dry. In the battles Adelia fought, only blood and chunks of meat remained from bodies that had been rendered unrecognizable. It was said that even the strongest rangers would faint after witnessing the horror.

On the other hand, there were the lunatics who cheered more enthusiastically for Adelia’s nature, but they were the exception.

The majority of rangers loved Adelia, who was good and gentle, but at the same time avoided going on the battlefield with her.

How scary it must have been for them to meet her in such a yard of madness while her battle energies have not subsided. Even if they hadn’t known this, Adelia’s gaze must have been similar to a predator’s looking at its prey, for her traits of [Butcher] and [War Mania] were currently in full bloom.

At that moment, the rangers must have felt like frogs facing a snake, or like rabbits in front of a lion.

“If Adelia does that, always wait for her to come back to her senses.”

“We tried to do that, but we were a little worried.”

“You guys were worried about Adelia?”

“Like rats worried about a cat,” the ranger sighed, his face filled with regret.

I pitied the man, for he still hadn’t cleared out the horrors of that day. I asked him what had happened next.

“We kept crying out that we were on the same side — my throat got sore. But, instead of lowering her sword, Lady Adelia gripped it tighter. We thought that it was all going wrong. We moved first, at that moment!”

“What did you do in that instant?”

“We all took something from our pockets at once. The moment she looked at it, Lady Adelia’s eyes returned to their original state, as if they had always been like that. She sheathed her sword, and it felt like she was more dead than alive.”

The ranger sounded discouraged as if it felt creepy just thinking about it.

“How?! What did you show her?” I urged the ranger to answer me, thinking that I might hopefully find clues as to how to control Adelia’s madness whenever I was absent.

“It was your personal belongings.”

“My belongings?”

“There was a handkerchief embroidered with your Highness’s crest. There was even a combat glove.” The ranger had at first been talking proudly; now his tone had gradually crept into a whisper.

“My handkerchief. My gloves. What else?”

“There was underwear and a lot of other things.”

“So, a hundred rangers pulled out my stuff at the same time, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So- When did you steal my stuff?” I asked in a growl, and the ranger quickly created an excuse.

“That… Before going out, after listening to the briefing, we identified something that could work. And we took it only because the situation was urgent-”

“You knew that this was a job that required speed. That’s why I told you to come straight after the order was given. Was my order not delivered properly?”

The ranger froze as he faced my cold voice, then cried out, “No! It was delivered properly! It was an urgent mission, so we scooped up the cheap shit and came running right away!”

“Okay. In such an urgent situation, you went into my lodgings, and came out with my stuff? All one hundred of you?”

“That… So-”

“Was I in my room, then?”

Hearing my words, the ranger bowed his head.

“I sinned! I’m sorry!” He apologized for his immorality.

“Explain,” I growled as I stared at the ranger’s bowed head. He closed his eyes and explained the situation.

“It’s… It’s like a talisman.”

His explanation was so absurd that I started laughing.

“Good things happen when we have your Highness’s personal belongings.”

“Hah, that doesn’t sound like anything real.”

“Really! Some have really worked!”

I just laughed as I watched the ranger continuously shouting bullshit that I would never believe.

“No. Why the hell does Jordan not manage his rangers?” I mused.

The ranger had a strange expression as he looked at me.

“Surely…”

“Company Commander Jordan did it first.”

I stopped laughing.

“Do you know why Commander Balahard allows such ridiculous superstitions to spread among the rangers?”

This time, the ranger averted his gaze, then turned away from me. As I watched him, my face twisted into a frown.

“You must be crazy. Even Vincent?”

The expression of having one’s foot crushed by an invisible ax was used in cases such as these.

“To tell your Highness the truth, the commander has the most.”

Thankfully, the ranger spoke without me having to question him, adding the final piece to the puzzle.

My head began to hurt; I didn’t want to talk anymore.

“If you want me to leave all you guys alone, first of all, grab the one who took my underwear and drag him in front of me.”

“Shall I take him alive? Or will I kill him and then bring him back?” the ranger responded, his face as sly a corrupt priest when offering a sacrifice.

“Half-living, half-dead,” I replied casually as I touched my chin, then chased the ranger out. Alone again, I awaited the return of the troops with a terrible feeling. Half a day had passed, though it felt like a year when I received the news that Adelia, the other knights, and the rangers have reached the fortress.

I went straight to the gate, and when I stepped outside it, the first thing I saw was about a hundred tents. For the five hundred mercenaries who I had kept and the thousand who had arrived a few days ago, it was a temporary residence. The mercenaries saw me and ran out of their tents to see what was going on.

Then they followed my gaze, looking across the plains. When they saw the returning troops, they began to wonder among themselves.

“What? Where are they coming from?”

“Did they go to defeat monsters?”

Ignoring the noise they were making, I watched quietly as the troops reached the fort, still a hundred yards from the gate. Adelia was at their forefront. As she walked to the gate with drooping shoulders and a thick cloak wrapped around her, she saw me and widened her eyes.

A smile quickly spread over her gloomy face, and a lot of joy entered her eyes. Adelia’s face seemed as if she would come running to me right away. Actually, she did almost skip to me. As her strides increased in length, the cloak wrapped around her flared open, and its red-stained hem was revealed.

“Isn’t that blood?”

“It looks like blood.”

The mercenaries quickly noticed the nature of the stain and began to mumble.

Meanwhile, Adelia was running toward me.

She stopped right in front of me with a reddened face, her shoulders moving with every breath. Her body was that of a Sword Master who has reached completion; there was no way that she could be short of breath just because of running a few yards.

Adelia straightened her shoulders and turned her gaze straight at me.

‘Chuck’

She pounded her fist upon her chest, holding her back straight.

“I, Adelia Bavaria, report that all are dead and none of our forces injured. I return with one hundred and thirty troops. The mission is completed.”

Adelia spoke like a knight. It was really awkward, which made it even more unique. I forgot about the smell of blood slamming into my nose as I unwittingly raised my hand. It moved toward Adelia’s head.

‘Strt’

Then I suddenly stopped and looked at Adelia. She looked at me with a calm face, when she would have cried and lamented at moments like these in the past. I withdrew my outstretched hand. In order to not waste Adelia’s efforts in reporting the mission’s completion to me as a knight, I spoke to her in a professional tone.

“Good work. I’ll hear a detailed report later.”

I also dealt with her by keeping my back straight.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Adelia gave a small bow and stepped back.

No matter how daring she looked, I still had to put up with the fact that I wanted to stroke her hair.

“Hgmm,” I coughed for no reason and turned my head. Thirty knights and ninety-nine rangers were looking at me. The battle had been fought by Adelia alone, but looking at their faces, they looked far more tired.

“Everyone worked hard. You can go back and have a good rest.”

At my words, the knights and rangers gave their salutes with rather subdued gestures.

At first glance, these didn’t seem like the men of Winter Castle, who never hesitated to draw their swords and rove across the battlefield. But this was only for a while.

The knights and rangers were conscious of the gazing mercenaries who had run from their tents, so stretched their shoulders and refined their posture. Their disorganized appearance disappeared in an instant.

“Move!”

On the command of the knight at their front, the knights and rangers passed me by and entered the fortress gate — marching on with straight legs, as if they had no worries.

Behind them came a cart full of loot.

“Uh? That’s the gray wolf mercenaries’ weapons!”

“There’s the flag of the Blue Lark Company!”

“There’s also the shadow banner of the Leopard Mercenaries!”

The mercenaries started shouting one after the other as they recognized the tattered military flags that had negligently been shoved onto one side of the cart.

“Why are these-”

At that moment, all the murmuring mercenaries shut their mouths as one. Then, with wide eyes, they looked at the backs of the troops who had already passed the gate, and their expressions were hard like stone. Maybe, they would soon get mad about what happened to the erstwhile owners of the loot piled up under the flags.

There was a heavy silence, their trembling eyes filled with anxiety, and an uncomfortable agitation spread through their ranks.

When their negative emotions reached a peak, I went to stand before them and said, “Keep in mind that our kingdom will never be tolerant toward those who covet our land, people, and wealth.”

No matter how insignificant my words were, a few quick-witted warriors understood what I was saying and groaned.

“They don’t like spoiled dogs here. It looks like these ones were caught trying to steal again.”

“That’s why he wanted to filter out all the bad guys and kick them out, and after all that, they still had an accident.”

When some of the mercenaries spoke, those around them also understood the situation and changed their expressions.

“Hey!”

“I like it! These bastards were too sick to be called mercenaries!”

“I knew they would do something like this at any time!”

Eventually, some of them spat on the ground and even cursed the dead mercenaries.

Apparently, the notoriety of the slain sellswords was quite high. Warriors spoke, saying that they had been cursing these bandits and wishing for their deaths for a long time.

“Wait a minute! So, did Leonberg’s army annihilate them with only a hundred soldiers and thirty knights?”

“But how? There were no dead or injured men among them…”

The random question someone had thrown into the crowd was an astonishing one and quickly spread among the mercenaries.

“Apart from the others — they killed the Gray Wolves, especially those demons Turk and Yols?”

“Crazy… What the hell are these monsters?”

“I heard that Leonberg prevailed against the several times larger Imperial Army. The rumors weren’t exaggerated.”

Even if late, their admiration for us blossomed, and I was satisfied. In fact, the deed had not been done by a hundred soldiers nor thirty knights but by Adelia alone.

Of course, the results would not have changed even if Adelia had not fought.

Having survived countless battles, the Winter Knights were war veterans. They would easily overcome that many mercenaries, no matter how crowded the field of battle.

The same was true of the rangers, who had been forged in battles against orc warriors.

They had felled countless imperial knights and were the elite among the elite who still had enough spirit left to laugh and suffer. They were not worth three mercenaries each, but four.

Moreover, these were mercenaries whose slaughter victims had mainly been powerless people with no battle experience. I continued to look at the mercenaries’ traits as I activated [Judging] and [Third Ear].

While many mercenaries had admired the kingdom’s power in defeating a force three times larger without casualties, no one was mourning the deaths and expressing hostility to the kingdom.

If such as them were here, they could be from the same companies as those who were killed.

I pretended to be indifferent as I glanced over the mercenaries.

Even though my ability was secret, I couldn’t rule out the possibility that there would be warriors like them mixed into the crowd, managing to avoid the eyes of [Judging].

As expected, I noticed some uncomfortable signs on the faces of some mercenaries. I remembered their features and instructed the rangers to watch them closely. Then, I headed straight through the fort’s gate, and Adelia followed me.

After walking for a while, I suddenly looked back.

Adelia was gazing at me with her consistent face, her good and gentle face that made it hard to believe she had taken hundreds of lives a few days ago.

Still, I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you okay?”

Adelia said she was okay with a surprisingly embarrassed face. At first glance, she looked no different than before, but I knew her well. Adelia’s soul was harder than before. She was different — she was already a great knight.

I suddenly remembered the first time Adelia had spoken her [Poem of Subjugation] before me, swearing to me, “If I become a knight, I will live as your Highness’s sword.”

That was Adelia’s Muhunshi poem; her pledge.

“I merely punished nonhuman things for your Highness’s sake, and I will continue to do so without hesitation if your Highness wishes.”

And at this moment, her oath was fulfilled.

The moment I realized it- ‘Hwaak!’

Light flared into being.