The Porter Is Not Interested in the Hero Party

17 – Form of love (6)

“What is this?”

“Meh, what happened to Count Meindall?”

“there! Open the gates! We must go in!”

The same words sound like a blessing to someone and a warning to someone else. What we felt was a celebration of mission success sounded like a consolation for the end of the world to someone. Soldiers were gathering in front of the castle gate holding spears and swords, and Ashuria pushed me toward the warehouse and said,

“It’s hard to subdue all these people while protecting you. Go to the warehouse.”

She bandaged and fixed her knuckles. The helmeted soldier at the forefront saw Ashuria’s silent battle posture and cried out in a cold sweat.

“Oh, open the door! We need to know what happened to the Earl of Maindall!”

Ashuria seemed to have decided that it was easier to press down with force than to give a kind explanation to the soldier. I clenched my fists with the hands that God probably gave me to use in prayer, then lowered my body. The clear attitude of fighting made the atmosphere even sharper, and the soldiers who rolled their eyes hesitantly aimed their spears at us.

The soldier glared at Ashuria while sweating profusely.

Ashuria flicked her hands and moved her feet as if to ask her to come anytime. Every time I drew a large trajectory as if I was sweeping over a sandy beach, dust rose from the floor.

The soldier gritted his teeth, and I flew toward the warehouse as quickly as a rat. The confrontation between Ashuria and the soldiers looked more dramatic and dangerous as they headed toward the warehouse. Hundreds of armed soldiers and knuckle-wearing nuns were only confronting each other, but it felt like the soldiers were coming together.

A breathtaking moment.

I threw myself on the straw bale and prepared to shut the door at any moment.

Amidst the tension, where a distorted scream from someone or a wrong hand gesture could cause a tragedy, we held our breaths while holding onto each other’s equipment without even making a loud sound.

Ashuria kept looking at the top of the castle, rolling her eyes, and the soldiers flinched every time she looked away, measuring the angle of when to dig in.

“Everyone lower your weapons!”

This blood-drying confrontation continued until the great-looking general, who climbed the castle tower, settled the situation. Ashuria also took off her knuckles as the innocent soldiers breathed as if they didn’t want to be beaten, and the soldiers lowered their weapons with a murmur.

Count Houllier had the intimidation of being able to command his soldiers with a single shout.

The soldiers looked up to Count Houllier, transformed into obedient beings who wanted to obey orders first and then ask why. said the man at the head of the soldiers.

“Count Ulier! What the hell happened inside? Why can I hear the screams of Count Meindall and Baron Luke, and the members of the party of warriors, who should be allies, are blocking our advance!”

Count Holier’s angular face looked more artificial in the dim light. He took a deep breath and puffed out his lungs like a bull before a bullfight.

A booming voice echoed through the castle.

“With the Earl of Maindall! Baron Luke! Arrested for colluding with the Demon King’s Army! They secretly contacted the Demon King’s army in confrontation to find a way to live, and tried to sell the kingdom and the land they should protect! here! There is evidence from an official investigation at the royal palace! There are eyewitnesses who have seen Count Meindall come into contact with the Demon Tribe! We have secured testimony of Baron Luke’s suspicious activities from his servants!

They acknowledged and confessed their sins! Evidence that even the family tried to steal came out with a letter hidden in the bosom! Is there anyone who will defend the traitor! If you don’t want to join the traitor, lay down your weapons and follow our orders! This fortress has been entrusted with the command of Count Nahoulier according to the king’s order!”

As if waiting, the sound of a window dropping was heard. Some nodded with a sigh of relief, others were confused by the news of the betrayal of the Earl of Maindall. cried Count Houllier.

“If you are a soldier, act like a soldier! Traitors will be punished according to the kingdom’s rules, and we must deal with our enemies!”

There was not a single word wrong in the Count’s cry. Soldiers reload equipment and move in perfect order. There was still a mix of confusion and relief on their faces, but everyone knew that by tomorrow they would be clearing their minds.

I secretly poked my head out, looked around, and walked back towards Ashuria. she said to me as she loosened her knuckles.

“Why is that? You could just sleep there. I am not hurt anywhere.”

Despite speaking in a cold tone, she skimmed my body to make sure there was no place to heal. I deliberately jumped in place and spread my arms to confirm that she was fine, only then she nodded and tried to put her knuckles in her pocket.

I reached out and stopped her from disarming. Ashuria narrowed her eyes and looked at me as if asking why, and I smiled and said,

“I just heard about Count Houllier and thought about it.”

“What is it?”

“How do you think the Earl of Maindall would have contacted you? It must have been difficult to connect a separate communication line with the demons.”

Ashria shook her head. She was an expert at turning demon worshipers into meatballs, not a brainy expert at this. I looked around the fort and said.

“There must be someone who receives orders from Count Meindall and relays communications to the Demon King’s Army. any way.”

Ashria’s eyes lit up. When his black eyes sparkled, they looked even blacker, sending a chill down his spine.

******

A dark forest where even the wild beasts hold their breath. A man carrying a bow was climbing a rock, damaging the twigs that slanted across the fort’s walls. Because of the bony trees and the dark shade, his moving figure felt like an illusion left by fatigue or an afterimage of a bright flame.

The man, like someone who’s done this many times, climbed the invisible ledge to the point where the fort was out of sight. After climbing to the point where the fortress wall and rocks exquisitely covered his body, he took out a pen and paper from his pocket.

He watched his surroundings and quickly wrote down the contents on a piece of paper, and tried to tie the note to the end of the arrow.

“yes. In a confrontation like this, there’s nothing like an arrow to have a secret conversation.”

But his movements were frozen by a low voice coming from behind him. I managed to turn my head, and there was a man grinning and a nun with a stiff face and her hands untied.

“How could the Earl of Maindall communicate if he can’t even use telepathy? He bribed some of his subordinates and betrayed them together, so he must be able to talk. What did you agree to receive as a condition of sending letters to the demons?”

“me… … . town!”

But the man did not listen to the soldier’s answer. The smiling man hardened his expression and kicked the soldier in the stomach. The armor was wrinkled and the breast meat was sliced. The soldier rolled on the floor clutching his head in suffocating pain.

“Keep it off… ! Knock… … !”

“Honestly, I don’t even know what I was supposed to get. I was supposed to get some money. Was it so much fun selling the country for gold and silver? To the point of thinking that even the moment Earl Maindall was captured, he had to complete his last mission?”

“Sorry, sorry… ! is… !”

The man pressed his foot on the soldier’s chest once again. The armor gradually dug into the soldier’s flesh at his legs, and blood was seeping out of the fabric.

“ah… ! it hurts… ! Aww… … !”

The man picked up the note that had fallen on the floor and checked the contents.

[The Earl of Maindall. Baron Luke. Caught. Operation canceled. I will be grateful if you take care of my share.]

The idea of small people can’t get out of the palm of your hand. The man laughed more at the contradictory expectations of the soldier’s letter than the soldier’s ugly behavior. To believe the demons will keep their promises when you don’t think the kingdom will win. The man asked as he picked up the paper.

“Are there more? Who else is there?”

“Uh, no… !”

The soldier shook his head back and forth in pain. The man also believed the soldier’s words.

It was because there was no reason to use such a simple and confidential contact with two or three people. Occasionally, he only had to shoot arrows and retrieve the arrows that flew by.

Using multiple soldiers increases the risk.

It was enough for one stupid person who believed that gold and silver treasures would come from doing just that much work.

The man gave more strength to his feet. As if an iron plate had been thrown into mud, the warped armor dug into the soldier’s flesh. I could hear the sound of flesh being torn and the fluttering movements of my body like a freshwater fish that had fallen by the riverside.

“ah… ! ahhh… ! ah… ! Please save me… … ! my please… … ! Ah, ah… !”

The soldier flopping in pain cried and begged for mercy. There was no chance that he, who was already half-stitched in the iron plate, would survive. Every time he stepped on a corner with his foot, the man rubbed the rattling iron plate once and lowered his foot.

“ah… ! Aww… !”

The soldier let out a sigh of relief at the mere sight of the weight holding him down. The soldier looked at the nun standing behind the man with strange expectations, and the man alternately looked at the soldier’s gaze and at the nun, then laughed and pushed the soldier’s body away with his foot.

“uh… . uhh… ! Oh, no… !”

The man was not kind enough to stop when he said no. The soldier, who was unable to scream properly due to a lung injury, tumbled down the cliff like a rockfall, bumping into twigs and overhanging rocks.

The man looked back and said.

“Let’s go now. Now that we know how to contact you and have killed the contact person, we can imitate this handwriting and frame the message appropriately.”

Ashria was staring blankly at the man. The man did not feel bad about Ashuria’s expression. An expression mixed with surprise about oneself is a good food for self-esteem. said the man.

“You can compliment me. Because it was kind of cool.”

“You are more sadistic than I thought. I saw it again.”

The man couldn’t tell whether Ashria’s words were a compliment or not.