The banquet like a storm passed and more busy days began.

What happened in the forest came as a great shock to me.

I couldn’t do anything and was helpless. Winning the bet would have been impossible without Hatchling.

You never know when it will happen again.

I needed to build up my strength to prepare for that time.

‘Ahar must be getting stronger in real time even now.’

I got goosebumps when I thought of Ahar, who was growing stronger in the north.

When Ahar came out of the North, he might be as strong as a Sword Master.

Maybe taurine robs him of his talent.

This can make it very difficult to deal with him.

It becomes impossible for me to deal with him alone.

That’s why Selina and Beatrice need help.

‘Beatrice is getting stronger faster than the original, so it’s okay, but it would be nice for Selina to awaken her Aura.’

There is a stark difference between the swordsman before and after awakening the aura.

You can think of it as crawling before awakening and running after awakening because you can’t walk.

There is such a huge difference.

When she awakened her aura, it was like a huge power surge.

“Five! Raymond, you are more energetic today.”

“Haap!”

“great! If you come out like that, I should be motivated too!”

The speed of the mercenary king gradually increased.

I was so full of enthusiasm that I was on the verge of exploding.

Eventually, the mercenary king’s attacks became so fast that it was hard to follow with the naked eye.

Quaang!

I thought I had blocked it, but the mercenary king’s fist was lodged in my abdomen.

“Woo-wook… .”

The things I ate in the morning were about to come up.

I tried to calm myself down and stood on my wobbly legs.

“Oh sorry. Did I go too far?”

“Hoo-wook… no. Please do as you are now.”

I can’t deal with the mercenary king forever.

I must become stronger so that the mercenary king can use his strength.

If you can’t do that much, it’s hard to survive for Ahar.

“I will finish here.”

“thank you for your effort.”

“yes. You did a good job too.”

The mercenary king came to my side as I sat down and lay down.

“I have a question, can I ask you?”

“What is it?”

“When there was a raid in the forest.”

“Yes.”

“I guess you were shocked at that time?”

“Yes?”

The mercenary king crossed his legs and continued talking to me who was puzzled.

“I felt impatience while sparring.”

“… .”

“I have sparred with you a lot, but it was the first time I felt like that. Was the opponent strong enough to make you feel that impatience?”

“… Yes. It was strong.”

Didn’t deny it.

It is also true that this raid made me feel impatient.

To be honest, I haven’t felt much of a sense of crisis until now.

I was worried about Ahar, but I thought that if things went as they are now, I would be able to stop them.

Next to me now are Selina and Beatrice, William and Hatchling, etc… .

There was talent and strong power.

Even if Ahar came out, he thought he would not lose.

‘I felt it this time. That the world should not be judged by my thoughts.’

The man called Knox was strong beyond common sense.

If I was alone, I wouldn’t have the confidence to survive Nox’s magic.

No matter how much I use Aura, I am not a sword master.

It was difficult to endure in such radical magic.

“There are many strong people in the world.”

“All of a sudden?”

The current me can’t stand the magic that I endured casually in such magic, and furthermore, the magic I used to attack the mercenary king.

It was difficult with just that one, but I was worried that I would be able to beat Ahar, who was stronger than him.

“I thought I wasn’t weak either… He was on a different level. If it hadn’t been for his whim, I wouldn’t be alive.”

“Well… .”

The mercenary king shut his mouth and scratched his cheek.

“It’s okay.”

The mercenary king, who jumped up, hit my back hard.

“Ouch! What are you doing!”

An exhilarating pain spread all over my back, and a scream came out involuntarily.

“You are worrying uncharacteristically of you. Don’t dwell on the past. And thank you that the guy you dealt with survived as you said.”

I couldn’t tell if this was consolation or teasing.

Perhaps reading my expression, the mercenary king said with a serious face.

“The guy you dealt with is a very dangerous guy.”

“I know.”

Just by burning a man alive, you can see how dangerous he is.

But he said it was more dangerous than I imagined.

“No, you don’t know. what kind of guy he is.”

“Of course I don’t know. I saw it for the first time.”

He’s a character that didn’t even appear in the original story.

How can I know such a person?

“Do you know that there was an old white horse war?”

“What is the White Horse War?”

I do not know. There was no way to know the contents that did not appear in the original work, and I did not bother to know.

“To put it simply, the White Horse War was a war initiated by an emperor who coveted a white horse from another kingdom.”

“… Isn’t that a lie?”

“Why am I lying? It’s a ridiculous war that actually happened, and it’s one of the largest wars on the continent.”

I didn’t know how to react to this.

Coveting a white horse and starting a war, I had no idea that such a person would exist.

“Me, Gerard, and Bane also participated in that war. Thanks to my active performance at that time, I got the title of king, and Gerard and Vane got the title of count.”

For some reason, I had a strong feeling that the story was going to be long.

It would be nice if he just pointed out the point, but the mercenary king was also very talkative.

“no way… .”

“Yeah, that guess is right. In addition to us, many strong people took part in that war, including Gnome Knox.”

“… .”

“In that war, he and we were enemies. Crash often… .”

The mercenary king cleared his throat as if he saw my expression while I was talking.

“To put it simply, what he looked like at that time was the worst. It was said that if you met him, you could never go back alive. Would you understand if his nickname was Psycho Arsonist?”

“So you’re saying it’s strange that they let me live?”

“No, that’s not the problem. The problem is that he is obsessive.”

What is this again?

Unbeknownst to me, my brow furrowed.

I had no idea that the word obsession would sound so ominous.

“Once he gets hooked, he never lets go. Somehow, by any means, I will get it. If anything, his nickname was Crazy Collector.”

I got chills for a moment.

As the mercenary king continued to speak, the ominous feeling inevitably grew.

“There was only one case where he let the enemy live. that you liked So much so that he gave up on what he was doing.”

“Isn’t that bad?”

“Why do you ask something obvious? You, you’ll have to buy yourself properly from now on. From what I see, it looks like he’s firmly attached to you. It will be quite annoying.”

“… F*ck.”

I couldn’t help but curse.

Even after briefly hearing from the mercenary king, I could see how dangerous he was.

But that dangerous guy is targeting me.

Ahar is not enough, so even that madman is targeting me… Why is life so difficult?

“That guy is hard to stop even me or Gerard.”

“Are you that strong?”

“It’s strong, but not enough to beat us.”

“Then why… ?”

“Because of the aftermath of fighting him. It’s not just me. The same goes for Gerard and Vane, and when we start fighting in earnest, there won’t be any left around them. Think of it as a natural disaster. If you are next to him, it will be difficult for you to return alive at your level.”

“Wait.”

It was hard to accept his words.

I don’t know the battle of the archmage, but I already had the experience of surviving in the battle of the sword master.

It wasn’t to the extent that he couldn’t survive in the battle between Ahar and Taurin.

“Isn’t that enough?”

“what? ah… right. Because I met Taurine.”

He nodded as if he understood my reaction.

“That’s because she didn’t fight properly. If she showed her power in earnest, the whole area would have collapsed.”

“… ?”

Didn’t that monstrous figure fight properly?

Then how on earth do you become like a monster if you fight in earnest?

I couldn’t quite figure it out.

In the original story, even when Ahar started a war, there were no such huge events as mountains collapsing and seas splitting.

So there were some things that were more difficult to accept.

To me, Ahar was the strongest person who could not be an opponent.

“Do you know the difference between a sword expert and a sword master?”

“… no.”

I do not know.

Other than being insanely strong.

“The reason why Sword Master is called the strongest may be due to the quantity and quality of Aura, but if you look closely, there is one special reason. The same goes for the Archmage.”

“Then what is different?”

“warrant.”

“… ?”

“The sword master is given authority. That is what differentiates a sword expert from a sword master.”

Why does authority come from here?

Basically, we know that the word power applies to God.

However, it was hard to believe that humans could obtain such a thing.

If there was such a thing, the sword masters and archmages in the original work wouldn’t have been killed so easily by Ahar.

“I don’t even understand. Because this is like extreme secrecy. Only those concerned know about the authority.”

“Is it real?”

“Can’t you believe it? As expected, it’s faster to show something like this with your body than to make people understand it with words.”

he jumped up

Then he took a stance towards the air.

“My authority has to do with being able to break anything.”

His fist extended slowly.

If it were me, I couldn’t dodge long enough, so I was slow enough to counterattack.

But when I stood in front of it, I wondered if I could do that.

The slowly extending fist felt terrifying.

An alarm bell rang in my head that if that fist was pointed at me, I would die.

Pew!

The impact of the fist that hit the air lightly was by no means light.

Clink.

A huge magic circle appeared in the sky with a sound like glass breaking.

It was not difficult to see that it was spread out by the count to protect the city.

However, the magic circle that seems to never be broken begins to crack.

The crack started to grow bigger and destroyed the entire magic circle.

And the barrier surrounding the city disappeared.

“Hamilter oh oh oh!”

The Count’s roar rang out.

“You madman! Get lost!”

“Wait a minute! I rebound!”

The mercenary king, who was holding onto his right arm, screamed at the huge flying meteorite.

“You understand now? What kind of authority is it?”

“… Yes I understand.”

The mercenary king, whose eyes were stained purple, pretended to be okay.

It happened to inform me of the authority, but I didn’t feel much guilt.

In the first place, I didn’t ask him to show me his authority, he just showed it excitedly by himself.

It wasn’t my fault.

The only thing I’m worried about is that Knox, who has the same power as him, is targeting me.

I was at a loss as to how to deal with him.

“It is definitely a powerful ability. But there’s a reason why I don’t use this ability.”

“That’s what you mean. rebound.”

“uh. I know. Because you’re smart too If you tell me one, I know ten.”

The Mercenary King burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at?”

Wow!

A boulder created in the air hit the Mercenary King in the back of the head.