WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 69: Smile!
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The carriage plunged into Akinzrow Gorge.
It slammed into a rock.
Then it slammed into the rock below once more.
Zain, clinging to the carriage roof, slammed into it too.
That was when Zain's consciousness went dark.
How much time had passed?
When Zain opened his eyes again, he braced himself for terrible pain.
Yet he felt nothing at all.
Had he already died?
He had fallen from a cliff, so perhaps that was possible.
Still, he felt neither resentment nor regret.
He had died while doing something shameful, hadn't he?
He had been usurping a territory and pursuing the rightful owner's daughter.
If he hadn't sworn an oath of obedience when he joined the Iron Lion Knights, he would have given up on everything and left long ago.
‘That acrid smell...’
It was the scent that rose from a burning altar, the scent of a temple.
Looking around, Zain found himself in a temple of fire and furnaces.
Without realizing it, he touched his necklace.
His faith had once been weak, but things were different now.
They had changed after the day he narrowly escaped death in Akam Basin.
He had met a goddess in his dream and survived.
It had been nothing short of a miracle.
Since then, he had never skipped his nightly prayers.
‘At least I didn't fall into hell.’
Though he was a pathetic fool who deserved to.
What had happened to Lady Rania?
She might have died.
Even if she hadn't, she would have been badly hurt, then captured by the soldiers from Greylim Territory.
Guilt tore through Zain's chest.
He dropped to his knees and bowed his head.
“Khk...”
Then, before him, a white foot slowly descended from the air.
Zain flinched in surprise, but he didn't dare lift his head.
He didn't know whether this was the afterlife or a dream.
Still, he thought he knew who had appeared before him.
“Goddess...?”
The goddess gently rested a hand on Zain's shoulder.
「Raise your head.」
Carefully, Zain lifted his head.
“Ah...”
He couldn't see the goddess's face.
The halo blazing like flames was too dazzling.
Why had the goddess appeared before him?
「Fulfill your role, knight.」
What did she mean? His role?
But like any oracle, the goddess offered no detailed explanation.
「Fulfill your role.」
How could she give such an order?
It was an order so fitting for the Goddess of the Furnace. Too fitting.
Could this be an oracle?
That couldn't be. Zain wasn't a priest, and the Temple of the Furnace hadn't received an oracle in decades.
Zain raised his head further to see the goddess's face.
Then he screamed.
“Argh!”
「Iron Lion Precept One. Obey.」
The goddess's face had changed into Gunter's.
Then it changed again, this time into his father's face.
「Pathetic fool. Trembling like that.」
At that moment, Zain realized.
This was a dream.
His face twisted.
* * *
“God... dess...”
As Zain muttered the goddess's name, someone flinched.
“That’s creepy, Sir Zain.”
“...Hurk!”
Zain's eyes flew open. He tried to sit up in shock, then collapsed again.
Pain wracked his entire body.
His shoulder, left arm, and ribs all seemed broken.
“L-Lady Rania.”
“...”
The one tending to Zain was none other than Rania.
The very person he had led soldiers to pursue.
His left arm was wrapped in bandages and held in a splint.
“I used the last potion, but... I think you need proper treatment.”
“Thank... you...”
Had that young girl treated him?
“Oliver did it.”
“...”
Why would Oliver save me?
Oliver was nowhere in sight.
Zain noticed where he was.
Inside the wrecked carriage.
It must have had an iron frame supporting it, because the passenger cabin had retained its shape.
The wheels, seats, and everything inside had been shattered, but it was still a miracle.
As Zain looked at Rania, he flinched.
A drop of blood ran down the girl's forehead.
“You're bleeding. Are you all right?”
“...Ah, I'm fine. I think I just got scratched a little.”
Rania casually wiped away the blood with her hand.
She looked remarkably calm.
Had she always been such a brave child?
That young lady who had seemed so innocent...
Gunter and the Iron Lion Knights had robbed her of that innocence.
And of course, Zain was to blame as well.
“Why did you save me?”
“...”
“You should have just left me to die.”
Zain asked because he truly wanted to know.
The hunter Oliver Zain knew was an utterly cold and rational person.
Oliver wouldn't have suddenly felt compassion and saved a knight who had been pursuing them.
That meant Rania must have asked Oliver to save him.
But why?
Rania gave a bitter smile.
“That day, when it rained. You recognized me but still let me inside, didn't you? When the soldiers were harassing me.”
“Ah...”
That had happened.
He had driven off the soldiers conducting the inspection and let the terrified Rania inside.
He had agonized for a long time over whether it had been the right choice.
“Sir Zain.”
“Yes.”
“The territory, the territory... it's burning.”
Tears rolled down Rania's cheeks.
What did she mean?
Zain's eyes widened.
Beyond the carriage window, he could see thick smoke billowing upward.
It rose from the direction of Greylim Territory.
Smoke also rose from the direction of the main road and plains leading to the capital.
Zain remembered the oil and explosives stockpiled in the territory.
Surely his seniors hadn't actually...
“There's nowhere left for me to go. What happened to Mother? She told me to go to Grandfather, she told me so...”
Zain had no words for the crying Rania.
His lips trembled.
Bang!
A heavy impact sounded outside.
Oliver's voice followed, torn and sharp.
“Knight! If you're awake, grab a sword and get out here!”
The voice was desperately urgent.
“A monster showed up!”
“M-Monster...!”
It seemed the monsters living in Akinzrow Gorge had appeared.
Zain hurriedly looked around, but he had no sword. He must have lost it during the fall.
Then Rania handed him a dagger.
“Sir Zain, please help me...”
For a moment, Zain couldn't answer.
Wasn't he the very person who had taken Rania's family and home from her?
He didn't deserve such a tearful request.
Perhaps she mistook his hesitation for refusal. Rania pleaded once more in a trembling voice.
“Please...”
“Zain! If you're a knight, fulfill your duty! Get out here!”
Oliver urged him again at the same time.
Zain carefully accepted Rania's dagger.
As though handling a sworn longsword, he raised the blade before his face.
“Yes, Lady Rania.”
Rania stared blankly at him.
“Knight Zain Krotz will protect you with his life.”
Zain swore it as a knight.
Then he rose at once.
Crack!
An ominous snapping sound came from his body.
Pain pierced between his ribs as though several awls had been driven into them.
He couldn't put any strength into his splinted left arm at all.
Still, Zain didn't show his pain.
Holding a dagger with needlessly ornate decorations, he stepped out of the wrecked carriage.
His body hurt, but his mind did not.
It was a feeling he had forgotten for years.
He had violated his duty of obedience, but Zain finally felt like a knight again.
He dragged his creaking body outside.
Staggering along with only a dagger in hand.
“You finally came out!”
Oliver stood before him, facing the monsters.
Oliver's condition was no better than Zain's.
The fingers holding their sword bent at grotesque angles.
Blood streamed from their head as well.
Zain walked over and stood beside Oliver.
“Where did these monsters come from?”
“Have you ever fought Goblins?”
Oliver grinned.
The monsters gathered as though preparing to attack the carriage were Goblins.
Zain nodded.
“Don't tell me they came through Greylim Territory.”
He remembered the flames rising from the direction of the territory.
But Oliver shook their head.
“They climbed up through the gorge. Probably all the way from the Great Forest.”
“...A tribal migration?”
“Who knows.”
Right, that wasn't important now.
The Goblins carried crude weapons, but there were too many of them.
“Kirruk.”
“Chwiet kekh! Kinggit!”
Their language was impossible to understand.
Hostility boiled in every sound.
The Goblins lying on the ground must all have been Oliver's work.
Even injured, Oliver could easily deal with ordinary Goblins.
“Don't underestimate them.”
Oliver warned him.
Zain soon understood why.
Several large Goblins came stomping forward from among the smaller ones.
“Hop Goblins!”
Their red skin proved they were Hop Goblins.
But something was strange.
They were larger and more muscular than any known Hop Goblin.
Zain was certain when he blocked the club one swung.
Crash!
Its strength was abnormal.
The impact nearly shattered Zain's arm.
There was no way he could block it with a dagger.
Zain rammed his shoulder into the Goblin's chest and clung to its arm.
It was a joint lock he had learned through knight training.
Crunch!
“Queeeek!”
The Hop Goblin, no, the Goblin that had clearly evolved beyond a Hop Goblin, screamed.
But Zain had already secured the joint perfectly.
If he put his weight into it and hung on, the shoulder would dislocate.
“Kuuk, chweeek!”
Yet the Hop Goblin possessed monstrous strength.
With power like an Orc warrior, it lifted Zain straight off the ground.
If it slammed him into the earth, Zain would be in grave danger.
Fortunately, Oliver joined the fight.
Slash!
The Hop Goblin's forearm was cleanly severed, freeing Zain.
Zain hurriedly picked up his dagger again.
But the watching Goblins rushed in.
They were small, but there were enough of them to be dangerous.
His life was at risk.
Then someone shouted.
“You filthy bastards!”
It was a human voice.
Hoping reinforcements had arrived, Zain turned his head.
Someone was running through the Goblins.
At first, Zain thought it was a human.
Their skin was somewhat red, they were much taller than the Goblins, and they looked like a beautiful woman with a catlike face.
But she wasn't human.
She was a Hop Goblin.
Their king, the great ruler who had united the Goblins of the Great Forest and sought to advance onto the continent.
Nanaruk charged like a tiger and kicked Oliver.
Thud!
Oliver flew away like a ball.
They barely landed on their feet, but immediately coughed up blood.
Zain rushed Nanaruk in the meantime.
His dagger shot for her throat.
Nanaruk raised a hand and blocked it.
Thunk!
The dagger pierced her palm, but she didn't care. Instead, she grabbed the hand holding Zain's dagger.
A chill ran down Zain's spine.
“Y-You, are you human or a Goblin?!”
“Can't you tell by looking?! I'm the Goblin King!”
A king?
Nanaruk's fist drove toward Zain's head.
Whoosh!
He barely avoided it by jerking his jaw back.
Zain had trained in close combat as well.
There was no reason he should lose a fight to a mere bipedal monster.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
But every one of Nanaruk's punches was lethal.
If even one landed, he would die.
Zain was clearly at a disadvantage.
“You crazy Goblin!”
Oliver joined in.
Even so, Nanaruk was stronger.
Perhaps things would have been different if Zain and Oliver had been in good condition, but...
“You humans are fairly capable.”
Nanaruk stomped the ground, sending Zain and Oliver back.
They barely kept their balance as they retreated.
Then an old Goblin approached Nanaruk and whispered something to her.
She clicked her tongue and glared at Zain.
“Looks like you're protecting a young human girl.”
“You bastard! The young lady...”
“Shut up before I kill all of you.”
Low-frequency force laced Nanaruk's voice, fueled by rage at her injured subordinates.
Zain's legs trembled, but he did his best not to show it.
Then something unexpected happened.
Nanaruk took two longswords from her subordinates and tossed them over.
“Take them.”
Did she mean they should settle this with swords?
But that wasn't why Nanaruk had given them weapons.
“You fight with swords too. Unless you want to die here.”
Zain didn't understand what Nanaruk meant.
He only cautiously picked up a longsword.
From that moment on, Nanaruk stopped paying attention to them.
She tightly tied back her hair and drew her axe.
“We came this way to avoid the Wave, and now it's gathering here of all places.”
She shouted.
“Get as close to the wall as possible, the right wall! The Hop Goblins take the front!”
The Goblins gathered along the right wall of the gorge.
The strongest Hop Goblins stood at the front as though protecting their kin.
Zain and Oliver retreated in front of the carriage as well.
The carriage had fallen right beside the gorge's right wall.
“Quiiiik!”
A Goblin screamed.
“It's coming!”
Nanaruk shouted.
Then the ground began to shake.
Rumble...
The things charging in hard enough to shake the earth were monsters.
An endless procession of monsters.
As a hunter with extensive knowledge of monsters, Oliver realized what was happening.
“M-Monster Wave.”
A Monster Wave was surging from the Great Forest.
Oliver spoke to Rania, who was hiding inside the wrecked carriage.
“My lady, close your eyes and stay hidden in the carriage.”
“What is it? What's happening?”
“Quickly! You must never come out, no matter what happens.”
Oliver barricaded the door with the carriage's broken wreckage.
It was a pathetic defense, but they hoped it would help.
Thudthudthudthudthud!
Then the monsters arrived.
Bears, insects, birds, giraffes, elephants, dogs, leopards, jaguars...
Monsters that would never normally travel together were packed into a crazed mass.
Most of the maddened monsters simply rushed past the Goblins.
But some eyed them.
And that alone was horribly dangerous.
“Argh!”
Zain repeatedly stabbed a boar in the face with his dagger.
But even with blades embedded in its body, the mad boar shoved him back.
Oliver rushed over and drove a sword into its spine.
Thud! Boom!
A giraffe-like monster nearly crushed Oliver beneath its foot.
They barely rolled out of the way.
It was no different from hell.
The Goblins began dying one after another too.
The carriage struck Oliver's back with a tap.
It was shameful, but Oliver wanted to crawl into the carriage and hide with Rania, even now.
Then Oliver spotted a monster.
It was noticeably enormous.
Perhaps a Chimera in the shape of a snake.
Its body was made of wood, and something like a crown sat upon its head.
“Gwoooorrrr!”
When it roared, every other monster roared with it.
That had to be the leader.
With death looming right before them, Oliver's body shook violently.
It was a terribly grotesque monster.
Something white, like a mushroom, protruded from the back of its neck.
No, not a mushroom...
Was that a snake too?
Then it happened.
“Uh, uhh!”
Nanaruk, who had been fighting like mad, let out a shrill cry.
“Whitey!”
Whitey? Who?
There was unmistakable joy in her voice, almost like rapture.
* * *
‘Nanaruk?!’
There was no way I wouldn't recognize her calling me.
Nanaruk and the Goblins were under attack from monsters.
*「You use Beam Lv. 1.」
I fired a beam in front of them.
Then our Kibaemi sprang into the air.
Kibaemi landed, crushing the other monsters that had been attacking the Goblins.
Craaaash!
Monster blood splattered everywhere.
The Goblins who had never seen me before jumped in surprise and hugged each other.
Some even begged desperately for their lives.
‘Why's the mood so weird?!’
“That's right, everyone smile! You need to smile!”
Nanaruk shouted that at the Goblins.
I smiled brightly too.
Footnotes:
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