Wandering Mercenary in an Open World

There were quite a few people who knew that the parched land had once been a lush forest.

Some noble learned it from his refined hobby of browsing through historical books, and a young shepherd heard it from his grandmother’s wrinkled lips as an old tale.

But the man who walked briskly, trampling on the withered leaves, was different.

He had seen with his own eyes the vitality that had filled this land, and at the same time, he was the one who had ruined it all.

He was the one who had whispered the words of temptation to the madmen who had tried to summon the spirit king by force.

Soon, the man stopped his steps.

In front of him, there was a pile of debris from a structure that had collapsed so badly that it was hard to recognize its shape.

“How interesting.”

From villages to kingdoms, he had witnessed all kinds of births and falls. But even for him, this sight had a rather intriguing aspect.

Until ten days ago, this place had been an infamous tower where countless witches had gathered.

Did the great demon lose control of his overflowing power and do this?

Who knows.

The man stepped on the debris on the ground and wandered around the fallen tower.

His slow pace looked leisurely, as if he was taking a walk, but the glint in his eyes under his hood was sharper than ever.

“Here it is.”

The man muttered in a gloomy voice and looked down at his feet.

His iron boots, shining with a cold light, smashed the ground and dug in. With a slight push of his ankle, he pushed away the large pieces of debris and bent his knee to reach into them.

Soon, a huge corpse that had been buried in the debris came out with his hand.

The corpse was horribly mutilated.

The head was nowhere to be seen, the back where the wings were supposed to be was torn, and the belly was split open.

The man stared blankly at the corpse, which was impossible to guess what had happened to it.

“So we meet again as a great demon. Fleur.”

There was no answer.

“You made a fool of yourself, the tower lord. You said you would fly by my side at the moment of destruction…”

The man chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.

Then, a dark shadow rose from his hand that held the demon’s body. And then, the demon’s body, which was still huge even though it was torn, began to shrink rapidly.

The corpse crumbled to pieces in the blink of an eye and soon disappeared into the dry wind.

Having sucked up all the power of the great demon, the man dusted off the debris on his iron glove.

“By the way, after Belducius, it’s Fleur. I guess I can’t go to the Academy of Wonders. Yeah.”

He finished his words and slowly lifted his head. The dull gray sky was no more beautiful than him.

He spoke softly to the sky.

“Adding a pale white to the darkness only leaves a murky gray. The abyss is not something you can wash off easily. No matter how hard you struggle, destruction will inevitably come. Just like the fate you boast about so happily.”

Then, a strong gust of wind blew from somewhere and spat out a cloudy dust from the tower’s debris. After the wind died down, there was no one on the ground.

***

Lupin was happier than ever these days.

If someone asked him why, he would have answered without hesitation with three reasons.

The first reason was that the monster lion that had appeared in the back mountain and treated the villagers as livestock had its head chopped off and died.

The second reason was that the person who killed the monster lion turned out to be the great Ruon (he regretted hitting the ground after he left).

And the third reason was that such a great warrior had enjoyed his homemade liquor.

That’s why he collapsed with his legs giving out when he saw Ruon and his party, who suddenly came back to the inn. The problem was that he peed a little.

“···My God, I never dreamed that they would come back to this tiny village, did you?”

Lupin’s old friend and the most cheerful person in the village, Thomson, muttered and peeked out from behind the kitchen.

“Oh, sh, shit! We made eye contact.”

Lupin clenched his teeth and said to Thomson, who was choking like a cat.

“I’m going crazy, so go home!”

“Hey, you’re the one who invited me to drink? It’s too late to say that now.”

Thomson argued and pointed to the back with his thumb.

“And I don’t have the courage to walk past the restaurant where the party that killed the great demon is sitting.”

Lupin sighed deeply and put fresh meat on the hot pan.

“Do whatever you want. Just don’t bother me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He said that, but Thomson still lingered around the restaurant.

“But what I’m saying is···where did they go? Did they kill another great demon by any chance?”

His suspicion was quite sharp.

The party looked exhausted, and their armor was either crumpled or torn, which clearly showed that they had been involved in a terrible fight.

But Lupin didn’t hear such words in his ears.

He was too busy cooking and preparing drinks, while his friend was spouting nonsense that made no sense.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

“You’re asking for trouble.”

“Then at least shut your mouth. And what kind of name is the Great Demon for a neighbor’s dog? Do you want to kill him like that?”

While the two middle-aged men were grumbling, Ruon and his companions were not quietly waiting for their meal.

“I’m hungry-”

“Didn’t I tell you to be quiet? If you keep talking without any sense, I’ll sell you to the circus as a talking crow. Got it?”

“Caw-!”

“What’s with the attitude?”

Tarwen raised his hand as if to hit him with a honey bomb, and Sven ran away with a thud. But unfortunately, that spot was not very good.

The crow was startled by Ruon’s gaze, who looked down at him with a blank expression.

“Sorry, I’ll be quiet-”

“Do that.”

“Thank-”

Sven bowed his head and walked across the table, and Kyle snorted.

“Is he smart or stupid?”

“Hmm, judging by the way he glares at you, I think he just has a bad temper.”

Strabo answered, putting his right hand on his left shoulder and rolling his shoulder.

“Whew, I feel better now.”

“From now on, unless it’s something special, I suggest you avoid changing your shape.”

“Igor! What kind of weak talk is that? The more you do this, the more you have to transform and adapt your body.”

“You’re afraid of dying after transforming twice, aren’t you?”

Meanwhile, the food that was steaming on the table began to come up one by one. It was clear that they had put a lot of effort into making the food look appetizing.

“Please enjoy your meal.”

Lupin, who seemed more nervous than before, shook his hand, and his companions looked at him with concern. They didn’t know if that made his hand shake more.

As expected, the meal was excellent.

The tender meat was bland without any gamey smell, and the crispy fried chicken had a strange magic that made them keep reaching for it. With the liquor that Lupin boasted of, the atmosphere naturally became harmonious.

They left behind the hard days and drank with silly jokes, and the crimson light that came out of the fireplace warmly lit them.

It was a cozy atmosphere.

When the mood that had been high began to subside a little, Igor quietly opened his mouth.

“We haven’t solved the fundamental problem.”

It was a rather abrupt remark, but none of the party members objected to it. They all knew what he wanted to say.

The first one to open his mouth was Tarwen.

“Are you talking about the being who contacted Fleur? The one who gave the magic circle to the cradle…”

She looked down at her smooth hand and bit her lip.

“I don’t know who he is either. If I try to recall my vague memory, he was someone who had known Fleur for a long time, and he didn’t hesitate to enter the cradle alone. Of course, he and the cradle wouldn’t fight, but… I was surprised that he didn’t seem nervous at all.”

The party frowned as they remembered the moment when they were pushed back by the witches’ onslaught.

Then Ruon put down his half-empty glass and said.

“I have a guess.”

Then he added, looking at the eyes that stared at him.

“I think I told you before.”

The party sighed as if they knew, looking at the direction of Ruon’s finger pointing at the large hammer.

“Ganakus…”

Kyle said.

“If you think about how he mentioned Fleur’s name before he took Imrek’s soul, it seems like you’re right.”

Strabo tilted his head.

“Imrek died more than thirty years ago, but would the knight who was active then still be in the field? Usually, people of his age are almost like farmers, and they only focus on training their juniors.”

As he continued his story based on the scene he saw at the Grand Cathedral of Tivela, Igor calmly answered.

“That’s why it’s a problem. If he really is Ganakus’s knight, and he was a hidden existence for a long time, then the order is either incompetent or deliberately covered up his existence. Even if he’s not the same person, it’s a problem. There are more than one or two corrupt knights who do such evil things? I don’t even want to imagine it.”

Then Sven, who was pecking at the corn that Lupin gave him with his beak, opened his mouth slightly.

“Courage to see the truth- Courage to see the truth-”

He scratched his head with his foot, looking embarrassed as the party’s eyes turned to him.

“What did you say, Sven?”

“Sorry-I’ll be quiet-”

“No, what did you say before?”

The party sighed softly as they watched the crow spitting out the same words as Tarwen’s gloom.

It was no different from saying that he had picked up the words he used from somewhere, since he had been trapped in a cradle all his life.

Kyle said.

“It’s clear that he’s spouting the doctrine of Ganax.”

Strabo banged the table and said, not liking the mood that had sunk when they were having fun.

“Let’s leave this dull talk to tomorrow’s us and talk about something fun now. This atmosphere is not polite to the delicious food and drink, is it?”

At his words, the party smiled faintly and reached for their glasses, but suddenly the outside of the inn began to buzz.

Horses?

Ruon heard the rough breathing of the horses snorting and neighing in the noisy noise. From the sound that burst out sporadically, it seemed like there were at least ten of them.

“Did we get a guest?”

Lupin, who was sitting far away from the party and talking quietly with Thomson, got up from his seat, brushing his hips.

“There’s no more ingredients left… Huh?”

Ruon didn’t miss his body stiffening as he approached the window, muttering softly. Immediately after, the door opened with a bang and a heavy sound echoed throughout the inn.

The source of the sound was a large iron shoe. As he raised his head along the flashing shoe, he saw a knight standing tall, fully armed with thick plate armor.

The cold eyes behind the face cover quickly and accurately scanned the faces of the party.

And then he stopped. He had made eye contact with Ruon, who was sitting at the edge of the table.

As if he wouldn’t budge from the silent gaze that seemed to pierce through the faceplate, he glared at him, but a grumbling voice came from behind.

“What are you doing out there!”

At that voice, the knight flinched and stepped aside, and someone walked into the inn with a confident stride.

So he was the real one.

Ruon pulled up the corners of his mouth slightly.

He was a bit smaller than the previous knight, but just by looking at the momentum that emanated from his whole body, he could easily tell that he was the leader.

Then Igor muttered as he looked at the engraving on their armor.

“Altwin? Why are the knights of wisdom here…”

At that, Ruon frowned.

What kind of god was that?