Chapter 143

Chapter 143

“Cadel, come on. Give me my wings back.”

Cadel stepped in front of them and roughly grabbed Lydon’s collar, looking up at Van with a serious face.

“Where are the reinforcements? Did the guards go to call them?”

“Yes. We’ll be in charge of the defense, so they went to call the reinforcements. I said we were the Scarlet Scales Mercenary, and we wouldn’t be able to hold on for long. I’m not sure how long it will take....... Commander. That woman, she’s a demon, right?”

“She’s not just any demon. She’s a High Demon with a good bloodline. A genuine.”

“Why are there demons everywhere we go? Are we cursed or something?”

To Van’s lament, Cadel shrugged. That was what game stories were for.

‘Things have taken a turn for the worse, but so far, so good.’

The Mercenary’s reputation now stood at 60, which was no small number. His hard work paid off as he was here right from the start of the quest, and the guards at the gate went according to plan. It started out well enough.

While he listened to the movement of the gateway through Van, Cadel released Lydon’s transformation. Returning to his normal size, Lydon stretched long and hard, then gestured toward Sellev, who hovered above the magic circle.

“Cadel, are you going to kill that demon? That’s going to be hard.”

“It would be greedy to kill her now. We have to defend the gate until reinforcements arrive. There are civilian houses just beyond the gate. We can’t let them cross until they’ve been evacuated.”

That was the essence of the quest for knight order promotion. Not just slaying the demon, but defending the entrance to the Empire against her attacks.

‘If we hold out, the Imperial Knights will join us, and when they do, we’ll have to prove to them that we make the greatest contribution to the defense of the Empire.’

In-game promotion quests had a system called ‘level of contribution’. If you didn’t reach a certain ‘level of contribution’ in an ongoing battle, the quest would fail, even if you wiped out Sellev or the monsters before then.

Achieving contribution and defending the gateway. Doing both at the same time was quite a challenge and resulted in many retries.

‘The level of contribution is the sum of the number of monsters we have slain and the damage we have dealt to Sellev, so it’s pretty clear what we need to do.’

Van’s expression darkened at the unexpected identity of the demon.

And Lydon, flying free in the distance, hurled a spear of ice at the Red Men. As if he remembered it belatedly, he descended to Cadel’s side.

“You know, Cadel. It just occurred to me, are you sure it’s okay if the humans who came as reinforcements see me? You’ve been nagging me all along not to get caught.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s not an opponent that’s easy enough to fight with restrictions.”

Originally, he would reveal Lydon’s true identity at the end of his knight order promotion. He decided that was the safest route, and that was what he was planning to do until recently.

But when he made that plan, he had Lumen. The second son of a famous family, enough to draw attention without Lydon. Lumen was the next best thing to being the center of attention.

However, with Lumen gone. With Lydon out of the picture, the Scarlet Scales Mercenary was barely a ‘mercenary corps’, with one commander and one member. The promotion to knight order became ridiculous.

Because of that, Cadel chose Lydon as a means to satisfy the lack of members and the presence of the mercenary corps. No existence could imprint the mercenary corps’ presence more reliably than a fairy. Besides, if this quest failed, he would lose the chance to show off Lydon, so it was like hitting multiple birds with one stone.

‘There’s a lot more to worry about than just the level of contribution.’

Following the story in the game did not make this world a simple system like a game. Cadel had to build a foundation to survive the natural progression of events.

‘’Let’s not rush this. This is the biggest challenge I’ve faced since I transmigrated. One wrong step and I’ll fall.’

One step at a time. Calming his nerves, Cadel gave the mercenary corps the [Wind Path]. They sped up, outpacing the Red Men, and raced straight for the gate.

All the while, Sellev continued to spawn Red Men, and the sight of the armies at the gate was a sight to behold. It was like a never-ending red wave or a moving fortress of disaster. There was a sense of dread as they advanced in columns. Cadel drew a short breath as he surveyed the monsters that seemed to surround the gate.

“From now on, I will maintain the barrier protecting the gateway. You two will take care of any approaching monsters. As I’ve said a few times, avoid any conflict with Sellev.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Ahaha! I can’t wait!”

Since Sellev was still focusing on mass-producing Red Men armies, there was no need to over-size the barrier from the start. It should be thick enough to cover any possible ranged attacks and surprises from Sellev.

As Cadel drew on the mana in his body, he also opened the ‘My Information’ window. It was a quest that required him to take on a High Demon and achieve a certain level of contribution. He had to use the attribute points he’d been saving up.