Chapter 51: Crossing Point (1) (1/2)
Terms used in this chapter:
Lankebuste – this is something I made up. There are similar words to it in German or Norwegian, but they’re combinations of two completely different places/words. In German, there’s Lanke + Büste, while in Norwegian, there’s Lånke + buste. I’ve considered using the Norwegian one as Hræsvelgr and Vedrfolnir are Norse in origin, but frankly, I’m too lazy to type ‘Lånkebuste’ every single time, so ‘Lankebuste’ it is. No more diacritics or accents please.
Demonic humans Farragut and Vilkay died, and the demon Sisioth was extinguished.
Demonic human Saluzia, who oversaw the northern branch of the Devil’s Hand in the Sälen Kingdom, stared at the Demon Record with a stunned face.
“No way.”
The Demon Record recorded the names of the demons and demonic humans that belonged to the Devil’s Hand, and it also had a special function.
If a demon or demonic human that was recorded in it was extinguished or killed, a red line was drawn in the middle of their name. Saluzia stared at those red lines that remained the same no matter how many times she looked at them.
‘They failed? No, were they exterminated?’
There were two demonic humans and one demon, and even close to a hundred combatants.
It was generally impossible.
Could it be that the iron man, Landius, had appeared once again?
No, that couldn’t be.
The iron man’s trail was found in the center of the Sälen Kingdom. He was not in the north now.
‘Jude Bayer and Cordelia Chase.’
There was something about the two of them.
If she only considered their skill, the possibility that they extinguished Farragut, Vilkay, and Sisioth was completely zero, but she couldn’t ignore the connection of the two.
In the first place, the troops were dispatched to aim for the two.
‘There is no such thing as a god of disaster.’
As she thought about it, five demonic humans have already died because of those two. On top of that, up to two hundred combatants and one demon died too, so the damage caused by them was very serious.
‘It cannot be like this.’
They had suffered so much damage.
Moreover, since she failed three times in a row, there was no way that the other executives would stay still. They would somehow disparage and harass her.
It wasn’t the only thing that she was afraid of.
Because there was something else that truly scared her.
‘What will the leader think of me? If she thinks I’m useless and drive me out…’
Just imagining it was horrible.
Being alive would be painful for her as she thought of their leader looking at her with eyes full of scorn.
‘I have to somehow make up for it.’
Recovering was already impossible.
The expression ‘settlement’ was more appropriate.
Capture Jude Bayer and Cordelia Chase alive. Give those two young ones hellish pain. Sacrifice them to summon a demon much more powerful than Sisioth.
“Haa.”
Saluzia closed her eyes. She closed the Demon Record and stabilized her breathing before slowly getting up from her seat.
“Kanos.”
“Yes, Master Saluzia.”
Kanos’ answer came back quietly in the pillar’s long-casted shadow.
Saluzia continued to talk as Kanos prostrated on her feet.
“Find the whereabouts of Cordelia Chase. This time, I will move myself. We will mobilize all the power of the northern branch.”
“I understand.”
Even Kanos recognized the seriousness of the situation, so he didn’t say anything else.
The only exoneration given to Saluzia and himself was to capture Jude Bayer and Cordelia Chase regardless of the means or method.
Saluzia looked away from him. She glared towards the north where Frost Anvil was located.
***
“Thank you for your hard work. Take care of yourself.”
“Yes sir, yes ma’am. Thank you for employing me.”
They were in the entrance of Lankebuste, the largest trading city in the Hræsvelgr territory.
At the first alleyway after passing through the gates, Jude and Cordelia handed over to a big man his compensation.
He was a man living in a village near Lankebuste, and they had met him yesterday and hired him for a day.
“Please keep it a secret.”
“Of course I will. Even if a knife is held to my throat, I will keep it a secret.”
The man thumped on his chest and guaranteed it, before laughing as he left the alley.
And Cordelia said.
“He won’t keep it a secret, right?”
“If someone asks him in exchange for a bit of money, he’ll tell it. It’s okay though. It’s not the kind of information that you can actively sell.”
There was nothing else to be noticed, except the fact that they were a very pretty woman and a handsome young man.
Moreover, the two were currently in disguise.
“Will we be seen as a brother and sister because of our similar hair color?”
“When our pursuers listen to the hearsay, they will shake even the smallest information about us. So having a disguise is better than having nothing.”
The two had dyed their hair in the same brown color and had pretended to be siblings.
“Count Hræsvelgr will be looking for a young man and woman. So if you add one more person to our party, it would be hard for them to properly find us.”
It was the reason why they hired a young man from the neighborhood, so that they could pass through the gates together.
“Will they really be fooled so easily?”
“We are two people who will die if we can’t live together. Take a step back and think about it. How many times do two people who’ve run away from home, saying that they’ll go on a honeymoon trip, will include another person on their journey?”
At Jude’s words, Cordelia thought about it, and she was convinced eventually.
“I understand, but it just feels sad.”
It was about their reputation in public.
“Me too.”
Jude was behind the creation of that reputation, but he nodded his head in agreement too before continuing talking about something different.
“Well then, let’s hurry. There’s a high likelihood that the Devil’s Hand will move again.”
“Hmm….wouldn’t Saluzia move herself if we had caused this much damage to them?”
“It’s highly likely.”
She was a high-ranking demonic human who’s in charge of the northern branch, and one of the six executives of the Devil’s Hand.
Cordelia remembered her for a moment, and then held the back of her neck as she said.
“You know what?”
“Yes, what?”
“We’re getting stronger much faster than in the game, but the enemies are also getting stronger much faster…or rather, that’s the feeling that I get.”
“It’s not just your feeling, as it’s correct. And perhaps, this situation will continue to happen in the future.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because we’re defeating the people whom we are supposed to lose to and breaking the flow of the original story because we got ahead of the situation.”
They defeated demonic human Minos in order to neutralize the kidnapping attempt of the Devil’s Hand, and as a result of defeating several demonic humans of the Devil’s Hand, they were in a situation where Saluzia was forced to appear much earlier than the original story.
Perhaps this phenomenon will continue in the future.
“Out of a frying pan into the fire.”
“So we have to get stronger quickly.”
“Sob, sob, but what do we do if Saluzia truly comes at us? We can’t beat her if she’s a high-ranking demonic human.”
Cordelia’s worries were reasonable. Therefore, Jude nodded and replied in a rather serious tone.
“It’ll be fine if our travel schedule is not too slow. The land of the barbarians beyond the border is the realm of the Devil’s Eye. Even the northern branch’s head of the Devil’s Hand will not be able to chase us beyond the border.”
The Devil’s Hand and the Devil’s Eye were rival groups who served under different great monarchs.
If an important figure and the high-ranking northern branch head, Saluzia, moved, the Devil’s Eye would likely respond. So once they’ve crossed the border, they could shake off their worries about the Devil’s Hand.
“I feel like I’m going into a tiger’s den just to avoid a lion.”
“Well…it’s not wrong because we have to deal with the Devil’s Eye too.”
For a moment, Jude shrugged, and Cordelia sighed again.
She shook her body as if she was full of energy, and then spoke in a lively voice.
“Okay, so moving on, we have to meet Red Wind now.”
“Did you like Red Wind?”
“Yes, she’s about next to Cordelia?”
“I’m just asking, but how much did you like Jude?”
“Second from the bottom? Because he’s the bum who tried to take Cordelia.”
“O-okay.”
Was it fortunate that he isn’t at the bottom…was what Jude was thinking.
At Jude’s reply, Cordelia burst into laughter and said.
“By the way, at this point… she’s probably stuck in a slave auction house?”
“Yes, considering the time of her appearance, she should be locked up by now. She probably got caught about a week ago.”
Because Red Wind was one of the playable characters, Cordelia also pretty much knew about her early actions in detail.
Red Wind had infiltrated across the border to Count Hræsvelgr’s territory in the Sälen Kingdom, in order to get medicine for her father, Red Gale. However, it was unreasonable for her in the first place to sneak into the territory, when she had only lived in the land of the barbarians all her life.
Eventually, Red Wind’s identity was discovered early on, and she got caught by slave merchants and became a slave.
“Because Red Wind is pretty.”