Chapter 23 - Raid

As soon as the next morning dawned, the team was ready to leave. Thane decided to use his wagon, and Ed and Arin decided to use horses. Arin visited the women before she left. Arin held each of the womens’ hands and prayed for them, and asked Father Frank to take care of them. The destination is Antsy. They decided the destination last night, using a map of the church to detect approximate locations and identify the distance. The trace using Blood Stone was greater than they thought. It was great to be able to find a demon in a city that would only take five days to travel. Thane checked Antsy and let out a big exclamation.

“No movement has been found there yet. I guess there’s a patient demon out there.”

Thane ordered something to his guard and went somewhere in the evening. And they went on a demon hunt. One good thing was that Arin paid for all the expenses for the trip, arrows, and other equipment. The Astron was said to be the most popular denomination on the continent, and it seemed to have plenty of money. So this time, the arrows in the infinite arrow barrel are packed. Ed hasn’t had a chance to fill it up after just using it, but now he could fill it up with high-quality arrows. Later, when he had a chance, he was going to make and use Hyun-chul’s arrowheads. Of course, by using the money that belonged to the Astron Church. A day of hard work after leaving the city of Matte allowed him to arrive at the next village. It was a place where passers-by travelers could stay the night and sleep even with just a few coins because the village was not big. The chief of the village caught a sheep and some chickens to be served with alcohol thanks to the coins that Arin gave. They had a drinking party together for the first time. Doug, the guard/driver took one baked chicken outside and shared it with three other guards. Arin was a big eater unlike what she looked like. The sight of her eating a sheep by herself was almost admirable. Ed, on the other hand, was a small eater. The same goes for Thane, so they cut the lamb steaks and washed their mouths with honey. After such a brief meal, Thane opened his mouth.

“We’ll be able to report on the situation in Antsy by tomorrow.”

Thane had more skills than they thought. It was amazing to find out how many demons he killed, but Ed wondered how he knew where they could reach in the next few days. It must have been the same for Arin.

“How do you know that?” “It’s a trade secret.”

Thane is a no-brainer in combat, but he had already been with the Pendrigan 16 years ago on the journey of catching the Great demon. It is amazing that a native of the Dalian kingdom can gather this much information about demons within the kingdom of Travia.

“It’s hard for any demon to hide himself completely. Because they can’t hide their instincts. So tomorrow we’ll have a rough outline.” “That’s a relief.”

Thane said as he walked to the bed his guard prepared.

“I’m tired because I’m old. I’ll go to bed first.” “Goodnight.”

Thane was in a carriage all day long. Even if it wasn’t running at a high speed, his body will be tired. Ed was almost worried that he might die early. When Thane laid down first, Ed organized the dishes. Arin help arrange the dishes and put them outside and went back in. Then Ed went outside with his bows and arrow barrel.

“Where are you going?” “I’m going to do some training before I go to bed.”

Arin’s eyes glistened at the words and brought out her weapons.

“Then I’ll go with you.” “Sure.”

Behind the town hall was a large open space. When Arin arrived there, she pulled out a sword and began to strike. Watching her training, Ed pulled out his bow and shot an arrow at the tree behind the village hall. Ed relaxed when he saw the arrow stuck in the goal he wanted. Under no circumstances did tension help. Firing arrows work a lot better when you breathe and relax. Ed fired seven arrows in a row.

Woossshh Wooosh!

Ed was not satisfied when he saw where the arrow got stuck. His goal was to split the arrow he shot, but he broke two of the arrows he fired instead. The rest were stuck in the surrounding. Unfortunately, training does not end here. Ed now ran zigzag and fired an arrow. It flew into the spot he aimed. Arin failed to train properly by following the prophecy. She never skipped her training when she was with the other holy knights, but she often skipped now because she was busy resting after traveling with her horse. She would spend days making excuses for herself instead of training to be in the best shape. But Ed was different. She has already seen that his skills are remarkable. Even without the use of an ice bow, a relic-class equipment, the archer’s ability itself has already reached top-class. She hasn’t seen an archer like him yet. She was ashamed of herself when she saw him train like that. He was doing his best in training even after riding a horse all day long. Looking at the art of archery, she realized how hard he had to work. There was no time to be happy and complacent that Master Palladin had acknowledged him. His gladiatorial technique could not easily subdue the Tencram, which was only an intermediate demon. It is a long way from dealing with the Great Demon according to the prophecy. Realizing that, she began to wield her sword again. Master Palladin told her before ‘Do everything you can with a single sword.’ And her sword began to cut through the night air. After training, Ed had fired all 500 arrows and looked back at Arin as he went to retrieve the arrows stuck in a tree. At first, she seemed to be training basic swordsmanship, but now she was wielding a sword as if she had met a deadly rival. Realizing that she was truly training, Ed quietly retrieved his arrows. He couldn’t pull the arrows that were stuck too deep into the tree. He tried to adjust as much as possible, but he managed to leave behind 15 arrows. Ed, who recovered his arrows, sat on one side of the vacant lot and watched Arin’s swordsmanship. She seemed to be improving her skills when she trained in that way. That mindset alone brought her one step closer to the main character. It was attractive to be able to see the main character growing from the side.

They left the village in the morning, but they couldn’t avoid camping that night because they didn’t reach the next village. And they could see Doug’s camping skills. Two long poles were pulled from the roof of the wagon, and the cloth covering the roof of the wagon was spread and fixed to the pole. And when the cloth was lowered, a space was created to block the wind. While making room to rest, Ed has been looking for firewood with Arin. Doug made a fire, took out the pot he had into the wagon, put salted meat in it, chopped vegetables, and began to boil it with a few more spices. Thane opened his mouth as his glasses were glistening.

“One peculiarity of Antsy is that the Grant Elder has not come out of his bedroom since got married to his third wife.” “Are there any other peculiarities?” “So far, I have not found any other peculiarities.”

Ed agonized for a moment and asked.

“Is there something special about the Grant Elder?” “Oh, you think he has some purpose?”

Ed’s eyes turned on Arin.

“What was he doing when we caught the Deborah?” “The Deborah was holding people alive. It was trying to bury them underground. But I didn’t know what it was for.” “One dug a tunnel, one tried giving birth, and the other has a purpose. If an intermediate demon was simply trying to suck a man’s vitality, he would have targeted young people.”

Thane nodded at the words.

“That makes sense. The thing that the Grant Elder usually carries is perfume. They make perfumes that the nobles love.” “Perfume?”

Arin was rather surprised because it was a product that she had never thought of. Then she tilted her head.

“Maybe the third wife is not an intermediate demon.” “We’ll leave the possibility open and investigate.”

Thanks to Thane, who gets information without the Internet, he thought he could specify the demon while they were on their way. Ed knows how important information is, so he could guess why Pendrigan stayed with Thane until the end.

“The stew is ready.”

Everyone gathered at Doug’s words and took some stew. They wondered why there was so much stew, but soon realized the reason after seeing Arin eat. Ed took a spoonful of the stew and admired it. He didn’t expect the stew to be that good since it was cooked outside, but it tasted better than he thought. This is one of the best foods he has eaten this year.

“It’s so delicious.”

It was natural for her to admire the taste like Ed. After having a conversation over stew, Thane went into the carriage and lay down, and Arin began swinging her sword by the campsite. Ed, who was looking at her swordsmanship, also grabbed the bow, aimed at a tree, and turned around and fired the arrow. When Ed saw a beast hit by a broken tree branch that was fired by his arrow, he prepared another arrow. And he was still aiming at the fallen beast. At the sight, Arin stopped wielding her sword and approached.

“What’s wrong?”

Ed didn’t answer, but still aimed at the fallen animal. When Arin felt something strange and looked at the animal, the body of the beast began to wriggle. Its back was wide open and its eyes were popped out. It tried to get back up with its hind legs and looked back at Ed and Arin. And they heard a voice.

-I found you.

Ed fired the arrow and hit the beast’s eyeball again. The voice disappeared. Arin looked at it, closed her eyes for a moment, and opened her eyes again. She looked at the body of the dead beast that had blue shining eyes. Arin read the faint traces of the demon, looked at its trail. Then, Arin looked up at the sky and asked Ed.

“Ed, do you see that?”

Ed looked at the sky at Arin’s words and his face hardened. The moon in the sky was hidden by clouds. No, he thought it was a cloud at first, but it was getting bigger. What looked like clouds were wild animals. No, were not just normal animals, it was all a magic trick. It was hard to figure out.

“Arin! Protect Thane!”

Arrows flew at a frightening speed from Ed’s hand after he finished speaking. Flying spells began to fall like rain. At that time, there were beasts flying through the magic. They fell above Ed’s head like a meteor. As Ed stepped back zigzag, the demons that had fallen like meteors were raising themselves. The lower-level demon, Benzel. It’s was a flying demon. There were as many as ten lower-level demons and hundreds of beasts on their heads.

“Are you kidding me?”

Ed fired a series of ice arrows. The Benzel demons strongest attack is the ‘flying meteor attack’. The most vulnerable moment is when it wraps your body with its wings. It may be scary for strangers to see ten demons with wings at the same time, but it was an opportunity for Ed. Ed’s arrows were shot one after the other in the foreheads of 10 Benzel demons. There was no mana, but it was enough to freeze the heads of the Benzel demons.

“Thanks for the experience.”