Vol 4 Chapter 6 (1/2)
Chapter 6
Haroon – Vol.4, Chap.6 – Baron Thaust Castle
《Baron Thaust Castle》
A few days later, most of the patients in the camp recovered, all thanks to Hall who willingly used her mana to cast healing magic and Teeno’s effective folk remedies.
Haroon’s mercenary guild, The Gusts of Wind was treated in an exceptional way in the camp. When they learned that the Gusts of Wind not only saved their lives but their lady imperial princess Briella, they accepted the members of The Gusts of Wind as their comrades, rather than hired mercenaries.
The knights training in this secret camp were not conferred as official knights yet, but they trained in such a dangerous place, Huk’ran for several years, with some who even trained for more than a decade. Most of them were experts.
They called themselves as Huk’ran Knights. Most of them were children of n.o.ble families related to imperial princess Briella, or commoners who’ve trained for a long time. Though they were knights who sell mercenaries short, they treated the Gusts of Wind differently.
The knights and magicians that attacked the camp appeared about two months ago. The attackers sneaked into the camp in night and mixed paralyzing poison to the well, the only water source of the camp. That’s how the knights got imprisoned overnight in their own dormitory.
When Haroon learned that, he could disburden his mind at least for a bit. He disliked how he dominated his enemies using Brat’s sleeping drugs, not his real ability.
At the beginning, Marquis Suleiman’s elite knights, the Red Eagles happened to find the secret camp while looking for the jewelry mine. Viscount Evans and his knights in training had several duels and battles with the Red Eagles. While doing so they learned what each other was capable of, and began to honour and respect each other
At that time Viscount Evans was only blocking them from entering the camp and no more. The Huk’ran Knights even provided food and necessities to the Red Eagles.
Though they got imprisoned by the magicians who joined the Red Eagles soon after, the knight’s unique rival-relations.h.i.+p built during the glorious battles was what saved their lives.
Two more days after, when Viscount Evans and the other leaders fully recovered, they invited Haroon to have a meal with them.
“We are still in deep mountain, and we’ve built this place for emergency use so we couldn’t prepare much. I still hope you can enjoy it.”
It seemed the Viscount hated treating the savior of their life only with bread, soup, and smoked meat as that was all they had.
“I am a mercenary, one of those who easily starves. So we mercenaries prefers to lick meatless bones with good people rather than well-made food.”
“Well, that makes me feel better if you put it that way. Captain Haroon is not like a mercenary, is he?”
Viscount Evans looked to the others for approval.
“Hahaha! It is as you say so, my lord. His words and actions are more of a n.o.ble’s, not very different from a decent knight.”
“Exactly. That was an excellent verbalization of my feeling, Baron Robern. I presume you had no proper greeting with him, right?”
Baron Robern was a big, tough knight that could be compared to Gitan. Though he had a tougher-looking face, his personality was very easy-going.
“I was only able to thank him with my eyes. I was seeking for a chance to greet him, my lord. If you may….”
“Yes we shall. Everyone, stand up!”
At the viscount’s word, the eight knights and three magicians stood up and faced haroon directly.
“Draw your weapon!”
The knights drew their weapons and lifted them high up in the air toward Haroon, and the magicians lifted their staffs or wands, pointing its back at Haroon.
“To our savior!”
“We shall return your kindness!”
As their lord shouts, they lowered their weapon on the ground, kneeled and shouted their promise. It was the usual ceremony of knights promising to return one’s kindness at all cost.
Their actions spoke louder than their words could. Though the situation made him feel uneasy, Haroon also felt proud, and deeply appreciated.
But that wasn’t the end.
“We Huk’ran Knights swear an oath by her majesty Briella, to be brothers with the Gusts of Wind. We must help our brothers at all cost. Speak now, if you have any objections, brothers.”
“None, sir!”
The knight’s answer to their lord was sonorous. The members of the Gusts of Wind and the other knights having their meals outside of the room must have heard them as well.
Seeing knights and magicians still remaining in the same posture, Haroon was deeply moved. Indeed he saved their lives but he’d been thinking their action to it was rather excessive. But it was true that he was feeling proud about it.
Carried along, Haroon drew out his steel sword and lifted it high up in the air, then lowered it, kneeling the same as the others.
“We, the Gusts of Wind too swear an oath to be brothers with the Huk’ran Knights. May our G.o.d’s blessing be with us!”
“May our G.o.d’s blessing and our lord’s grace be with us!”
Speaking with them, Haroon had good feeling towards the Huk’ran Knights. They were not as strict on etiquettes as other knights since they spent a significant amount of time in the mountains. Thanks to that, the members of the Gusts of Wind could build up good relations.h.i.+ps with them through unreserved talks.
Haroon loved the moment of meeting warm-hearted people as he had spent most of his life as a lone wolf. Moreover, even though they were knights, Haroon could not find the usual unfriendly att.i.tude and overbearing manners from them.
“By the way, Captain Haroon, is it true that you have heard Marquis Suleiman’s men mention that they are here for the jewelry mine?” Said Viscount Evans.
After the meal, Viscount Evans the
chief leader of the camp, Baron Milson the chief knight, Baron Holyon the chief magician and Haroon had tea together.
“Yes, sir. I heard them the day we helped you escape,” Haroon answered.
“Hmm. So that was true. That was not a rumor we accepted seriously.”
“The rumor about the existence of a jewelry mine that contains enough ores to buy the whole continent was there for decades. But there was no one who really found the mine. We didn’t have enough men to send out deep into the dangerous Huk’rans for a mere rumor.”
Baron Holyon explained. He was a middle-aged magician who mastered 5-circle.
“So financially lacking the third imperial prince’s faction decide to find the truth of such rumor. Then they happened to find us,” said the viscount.
“The third imperial prince who has the Suleimans, the knight family at his back lacks in financial support so he must have took every possibility.”
Holyon, who was also in charge of intel, added.
“Have you figured out the origin of their magicians and those strange people?”
“The magicians were from Deep-purple magic tower. Though I have not figured how they were able to win them over, deep-purple magicians are specialized in psychic magics, crossing the border of white-magic and black-magic. They have not revealed themselves to the empire for a long time, and seeing how they have sent a 6-circle magician, it seems they have grown much more than we expected. And sadly I have no information about those strange people”
Baron Holyon was able to explain in great details about the magicians as he was one, but it seemed that he didn’t know about the strange people.
“They are outlanders.”
The three were surprised.
“The outlanders? You mean the outlanders who are permitted to stay in our world by the oracles? Those who are capable of revival?”
It was rather surprising that they knew at least a couple things about outlanders. So Haroon shared some things he knew.
“Yes I mean those outlanders. This is something I heard while traveling, but each and every factions is hiring the outlanders. Though it is not known how many times they can revive, it is expected it will act as a good driving force. The outlander’s intention to settle down in this world as soon as possible must have created a good synergy so meeting and parting are rapidly on-going. The third imperial prince must have accepted a group of outlanders as well. The information about the mine must be from them too.”
“Is that so? Their skills were different and their clothing was different, so we’ve been a.s.suming they were those who walk the path of free knights. Considering how the third imperial prince faction’s knights entered the Huk’ran over two months ago, the other factions must be moving to win outlanders onto their side as well. They were early birds, and we are late worms. We must be joining our lord as soon as possible.”
As the viscount spoke, his face changed to an urgent expression.
“But sir, if I may speak to you, her majesty’s message delivered by lady Evans was to keep training.”
Baron Milson spoke up after listening to the conversation silently. Haroon could see frustration from Savaan’s and Holyon’s faces. But the first duty of the knights was unquestioning submission to their lord’s command.
“All right. Her majesty must have greater plans than we can think of. Our mind might be urgent, but it is more important to enhance our capability. We learned that we are weak at dealing with poison and magic, so we must focus on that part.”
“Yes, sir. I will prepare realistic training fights against the magicians from now on.”
And after this conversation, Haroon shared things he figured and things he learned from Bell. It was on his thinking that they might find the information about the Golden Battle that bell had collected useful.
After a while, Haroon left the barracks to find no one in the training ground. Leaving about a hundred patients at the camp, the knights who recovered went to hunt and raid the monsters with the members of the Gusts of Wind.
Unlike the main camp that was built with great geographical advantages, the second camp was near a valley with a great volume of water. Also, a big gra.s.sland was nearby so the camp was not safe from the monsters.
To secure the safety of the camp and to acquire the food for such a large group, they separated themselves into smaller squads or teams to clear the surroundings.
“Captain Haroon!”
When Haroon decided to go for a walk, he heard Hall calling him from the distance. She was coming out of the big tent that patients were hospitalized in. Seeing how her face was pale and the way she walks was not normal, Haroon could easily see that she was casting healing magic more than she could handle, again.
“Hall, you’re pus.h.i.+ng yourself too hard.”
While being together Haroon’s way of talking to Hall had gotten a lot smoother.
“I am fine. The magicians, including Baron Holyon had their mana sealed for too long that they temporarily lost control of their mana. They will be recovering in a few days so just a few days is as long as I’ll have to move.”
With enough food and good rest, the knights were recovering extremely fast but the magicians were not recovering as fast as them, which left Hall no choice but to help with their recovery.
Her small face was getting as small as a fist. Seeing how Haroon was looking at her pale face pityingly, Hall blushed for some reason.
“R-right, here’s the reward we’ve promised. I’m really sorry, I forgot about it since I was just too busy.….”
Feeling sorry, she quickly searched her inner pockets. She found a sack of 200 gold, and handed it to Haroon,
Haroon, not knowing where to put herself.
“I am really sorry that this is too little for what you’ve done for us. Even my father couldn’t bring much as the situation was so urgent…….”
Haroon received the sack, and gladly didn’t check if it was the right amount and put it in his pocket.
“No problem, it is enough. Indeed it was a tough mission, but we became brothers with the knights so it is like we have received more than we antic.i.p.ated.”
“There will be a day for us to repay your kindness. Thank you.”
Unlike how she dealt with the knights calmly and overbearingly, she became a lady in front of Haroon. Haroon too found this side of her much more comfortable to face, rather than the usual, carefree face or the cold, calm side of her.
She hesitated for a moment as if she had something to say, but Haroon had no idea as he never had a romantic relations.h.i.+p with a girl. At least he didn’t hide his good feeling towards her.
“I was going for a walk. Do you want to go together?”
“Sure! Well…. The patients…… I-I’m sorry. I… can’t. Not for a few more days. But later…… let’s go for a walk later, together.”
At first she rejoiced and brightly smiled, then draw her brows together thinking of the patients. She hesitated, then took a rain check. Her eyes were full of sorriness and mild frustration.
“I see. Well… I’ll get going then…….”
“Yeah, please be back before it gets too late.”
As a sweet, warm feeling was delivered to him from her words, Haroon quickly turned away from her. He couldn’t hide the blush from his face.
In the middle of training, Haroon came out of the stream and lay down on a boulder, where the warm sunlight was s.h.i.+ning.
“This is frustrating.”
It was the words that came out of Haroon’s mouth seeing the clouds pa.s.sing low as if he could catch them with bare hands.
The Gusts of Wind were training their swordsmans.h.i.+p in the stream. At first they couldn’t handle the strong flow of the water even for a few minutes, losing their balance and forced to be out of water. But they’d been training for a week now and they were now able to train in the water.
Training the swordsmans.h.i.+p against the strong current was much more effective than they thought. The moves were getting sharper, and they could put more strength in their swords. In the afternoon they go on monster raids with the Huk’ran knights, where they could see how effective the stream training was.
‘It feels like I’m the only one who’s falling behind.’
Haroon let out a light sigh. The swordsmans.h.i.+p he learned was the Sense Sword which only gets better through battles. So he trained his throwing knife skills, but it only ended heading against the wall.
That was why he was frustrated.
Seeing his members training and feeling envy, he suddenly became curious as to how much better they’d gotten.
‘Let’s see how much progress we have made so far.’
Haroon opened up his status window.
Name: Haroon
Race: Human
Cla.s.s: Swordsman
Level: 44
t.i.tle: Mercenary Guild Leader(and 6 others)
H.P.: 1,580
M.P.: 1,715
E.F.P.: 740
Strength: 58(+15) Stamina: 51
Intellect: 33 Wisdom: 52
Luck: 42 Agility: 50(+12)
Endurance: 21 E.S.P.: 17
Focus: 25 S.P.: 266
Fame: 1,780 Leaders.h.i.+p: 565
Fire Resistance: +10%
Mana Resistance: +10%
Remaining Bonus stats: 14
Though he had countless battles with the monsters and killed a 6-circle magician, he’s levelled up only 7 times. It was because he only a.s.sisted his members by throwing knives during the battles. But he didn’t mind, as playing the game was not his main priority.
Using Messenger Walking skill increased his mana capacity, and he gained two to three points in every stat. He really liked how he’d gained points in every stats. His level may be low, but the numbers appearing on the stat window proved that he was getting better and better.
He wouldn’t be able to summon Brat for a while and he was intending to train Messenger Walking so he invested all his bonus points to Agility. At his level, if one had 64 points in one stat it was similar to a pure stat build.
He was more interested in his members’ stats rather than his own. So he opened the mercenary guild status window.
Name: The Gusts of Wind
Grade: Small guild – C
Specialization: Escorting V.I.P., Hunting Monsters
Members: Philip, Gitan, Serinn, Ritrina, Teeno and Haroon(leader)
Fame: 200
There were small changes. First of all, his guild grade was raised to C from D. Also, two specialization categories were added. Fame too, has increased by 100 points.
It was surprising that his guild status got updated even by the quests he received individually, without using the mercenary guild. But knowing that it was not something important, he opened each members’ status window.
Name: Philip
Race: Human NPC
Cla.s.s: Swordsman
Level: 52
t.i.tle: Grade-D Mercenary
H.P.: 1,530 M.P.: 1,170
Strength: 51 Stamina: 54
Intellect: 26 Wisdom: 30
Luck: 6 Agility: 28
Focus: 8
[Skills]
Smas.h.i.+ng Blow: Basic Lv.5(100%)/Lv.5
Multi Blow: Intermediate Lv.3(16.30%)/Lv.5
‘Oh, wow! That’s a lot of progress he has made.’
He has leveled up 12 times through the journey and trainings. More than anything, he gained strength, stamina and agility. And his intermediate skill reached level 3 as well.
Name: Gitan
Race: Human NPC
Cla.s.s: Swordsman
Level: 46
t.i.tle: Grade-E Mercenary (Promotion Earned)
H.P.: 1,740 M.P.: 810
Strength: 70 Stamina: 70