WeTried Translations

Translator: Dawn

Editor: Dawn

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race

Chapter 25

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Master of the Nameless City

As if cheering on the Green Eyes’ second expedition, the weather was clear and bright. Of course, that didn’t mean it was all good. It was nice not having to blow warm breath onto their frozen, reddened cheeks to warm their hands, but when the weather got hotter, they would sweat more, which meant needing more water. 

As such, the worst season for exploring the Demon Realm wasn’t winter, but summer. Water was the hardest resource to secure in that place. They could purify dirty water with a priest’s cleansing miracle, but it was hard to supply enough for everyone to drink unless the group was elite. 

The party didn’t bother collecting any byproducts from the monsters they slaughtered. It was better to stay as light as possible on the way to the ruins, and once they started loading up on items there, they would surely have to discard anything miscellaneous they picked up along the way. 

If another expedition party followed behind them, they would probably celebrate while collecting all those free leftovers.  After moving along the same route as before for several days, a thick fog began to appear before their eyes. Last time, this was the area where their compass had broken, but it seemed the terrain’s characteristics had changed again.

Fortunately, Roden used the information he had recorded before to guide them through the fog. Along the way, most of the troublesome monster attacks were dealt with by Shan. Still, it was inevitably slower than crossing normal wasteland, taking three more days before the four of them arrived again at the mountain watchtower, Delephon. Entering the city through the narrow path, they saw several horses tied to nearby buildings.

“That’s…”

“Looks like someone got here before us.”

It wasn’t particularly surprising. The mountain watchtower offered a clear view of dozens of kilometers in every direction, and for some reason, monsters avoided approaching it. Because of that, many expedition parties passing through this route would stop there to plan their exploration or rest.

However, remembering their previous unpleasant encounter with another Alto expedition, they approached cautiously to confirm who it was. Unexpectedly, they saw a familiar face—a massive man, built like a mountain, waved his hand with a welcoming smile and shouted.

“Oh! If it isn’t the genius boy who turned me down? Fancy meeting you here!”

“Mr. Pakan?”

The ones who had arrived first were none other than Pakan the Bear Killer and his expedition party, whom Shan had met several times in Sedil. They were gathered around a fire inside the ruins of a building whose original purpose was unknown.

“Judging by how light your gear is, you must’ve set out not long ago. Are you heading out again?”

“Yes. It looks like you’re heading back now, Mr. Pakan.”

From what he heard, Pakan’s expedition party, “Giant Footstep,” had set out not long after Shan’s previous expedition, so they must’ve wandered the Demon Realm for quite some time before returning. As if to prove that, their condition was miserable. Their clothes were tattered and soaked with monster blood, with no spare clothes left to change into, and their weapons were chipped and worn. Looking closer, two of the original eight members were missing.

“Ms. Yojo and Mr. Marinak…”

Shan trailed off as he saw the smile vanish from Pakan’s rough face. The large man couldn’t speak for a moment, then his shoulders slumped.

“…Yeah. That’s what happened.”

No matter how experienced an explorer was, it was hard to swallow the grief of losing companions so easily. Even more so when they had been together for a long time. Not knowing how to respond, Shan hesitated briefly before slowly patting Pakan’s broad shoulder.

“Stay strong.”

“Thanks.”

Perhaps the comfort helped a little, Pakan ruffled Shan’s hair roughly with his large hand and grinned.

“In that case, how about really joining our expedition party?”

“I’ll pass.”

When Shan shook his head firmly, Pakan laughed heartily and waved him off. After tying their horses at the entrance and climbing the tower, Shan recalled the sorrowful expressions he had just seen.

Losing my companions, huh…

The experience of losing someone precious wasn’t unfamiliar to him. During the bandits’ attack on Willow Village, two people who had shown him kindness lost their lives, and he had even witnessed one of them die firsthand. But at that time, their deaths hadn’t felt all that sad.

Why is that?

Maybe because it had already been over half a year, he couldn’t understand his feelings back then. It might have been because the thrill of committing violence for the first time filled his mind, or because he hadn’t cared about Priest Ador and Celina as much as he thought.

One’s own heart was surprisingly difficult to truly understand. However, one thing was certain—if Roden lost his life, Shan would feel overwhelming grief. If someone killed Roden, Shan would kill not only that person but also whoever gave the order, climbing all the way up the chain. Even if it were the king of a nation.

“Roden.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t die.”

At Shan’s sudden words from above, Roden let out a small laugh.

“Sure, I’ll be careful.”

***

From the top of the watchtower, they confirmed that the northern area had now turned into a strange mix of swamp and snowfield instead of a sandstorm. After a brief discussion, they decided to head toward the snowfield. Unlike the swamp further north, the snowfield to the northeast was closer to their destination. Also, they figured that their current winter clothing would handle the cold better. But before long, Shan began to wonder if that decision had been a mistake. The cold of the snowfield was beyond imagination.

“Ugh…”

The freezing air seeped through the layers of his coat, and the wind cut at his face like blades. Even a few steps would make his body tremble, and his bones ache. He had thought he was used to the cold from growing up in Willow Village, where winters were harsh, but this was on a completely different level.

Compared to this, the winters of Libert and Pendia might as well be spring. Even the horses froze and struggled to move, so Roden pulled out potions from their supplies and handed them out.

“Drink this.”

“What is it?”

“Cold resistance potion. I was hoping to conserve it and push through if the cold was manageable, but no chance… At this rate, we’d freeze to death in less than an hour.”

In the first place, they had chosen the snowfield instead of the swamp because he had brought this. After taking a sip, Shan marveled at its worth. The sensation of warm blood coursing through his body and driving out the cold felt almost mystical.

“Wow…”

“Having money really is nice.”

“Indeed. To think a single potion costs dozens of gold coins.”

After also drinking the potion, Vent and Jerpo brushed off the snow clinging to their fur coats. The Green Eyes kept advancing through the snowstorm region, drinking cold-resistance potions whenever the effects wore off. Perhaps due to the extreme cold, even creatures that usually appeared in such areas, such as ice spirits or yetis, were nowhere to be seen.

They moved during the day under the potion’s effects, and at night, they burned heaps of dried cow dung inside the ruins of old Alto structures to keep warm. After about a day and a half of that routine, they managed to cross a distance that had previously taken three days in nearly half the time.

Part of it was because they were familiar with the route, but mostly it was thanks to their forced march, almost like running. Once they completely escaped the snowfield, Shan turned back and clicked his tongue.

“Let’s never go anywhere snowy again.”

“It’s not usually that extreme. That place was particularly cold.”

Jerpo pointed that out, though he himself looked just as fed up. After passing through the snowfield and traveling for another half day, they crossed the transitional zone. Before long, the compass broke again. But unlike last time, Shan and Roden let out sighs of relief.

“Thank goodness…”

“If it’s a compass zone, then at least there won’t be anything worse.”

Reaching the point where a broken compass brought relief meant one had truly become an explorer. Fortunately, finding their way without a compass wasn’t too difficult. From here on, it was truly uncharted territory, but they estimated their route by cross-referencing the Alto expedition log with the records the Count of Sedil had gifted them.

The expedition continued forward through countless hardships. They fought monsters, detoured around areas where stone bridges had vanished due to environmental shifts, spent half a day shooting down a flock of harpies one by one with arrows, and so on. As they crossed a tall, rugged mountain, Jerpo spoke in a tired voice.

“Those Alto fellows... I thought they were decent, but they were better than expected. It’s impressive they made it this far and came back. Though luck must have helped as well.”

Shan had defeated them so quickly that it was hard to notice, but they had certainly been skilled warriors and explorers. Then again, even a decent knight couldn’t last a single exchange against Shan, so comparing them at all was unfair. They finally reached their destination 25 days after leaving Sedil City. The food and water they had thought they brought in abundance had been reduced to exactly half.

“We made it!”

“Finally…”

Every member of the expedition looked utterly exhausted. After enduring monster attacks and pushing through all kinds of bizarre environments for so long, it was only natural. But the joy of reaching their target ruins was strong enough to suppress even that fatigue. Shan immediately stepped on Roden’s shoulder and climbed up to get a better view.

“It’s a city!”

“That’s right. That’s the place those Altos discovered.”

In the Demon Realm, it was quite common to find old buildings and ruins left behind by Altos. However, most of them had long since been looted by explorers, leaving nothing but skeletons of structures. In contrast, a city this deep within the realm had remained untouched, leaving behind various relics. Naturally, most had decayed into worthless junk over time, but some items were considered relics and sold for enormous prices, preserved by unique environments or magic.

“Alright, let’s go take a look!” After catching his breath, Roden shouted energetically.

The nameless city was larger than expected. The diameter of its walls alone stretched for kilometers, so its population must have been at least in the tens of thousands. It seemed comparable to the Sedil City—perhaps even larger.

“Could this be Asilube…?”

“That’s impossible,” Jerpo firmly cut him off.

Though his eyes were filled with deep interest and passion as he looked around, he remained calm.

“The capital of an empire larger than the entire Arman Alliance combined wouldn’t be this small or shabby. Even after all this time, it would have had room for at least hundreds of thousands of people.”

It was hard to imagine a city with over a million people, but then again, Shan had felt the same when he first heard of Hasra, the capital. If a city with a hundred thousand people existed, then one with a million could exist too. Food and such could be handled with magic anyway. 

Soon after, the Green Eyes entered the outskirts while maintaining full alert. As expected, it didn’t take long before monsters hiding throughout the area realized new prey had arrived and rushed out.

“Hiss—!”

“Wow, this is no joke…”

Snakes large enough to swallow a child slithered out from buildings and surrounded the expedition. Unlike normal snakes with a few fangs, these had saw-like teeth meant for chewing their prey apart. They rarely appeared near the edges of the Demon Realm, so they didn’t even have proper names. There were dozens of them.

According to the log, the Alto expedition had been unable to enter through the main gate because of them, so they had gone through the sewers and spent days scavenging relics from the outskirts like thieves. Naturally, that method wasn’t necessary if one had an overwhelming force.

“Stay back!”

After confirming that Roden and the other two had formed a defensive formation around the horses, Shan immediately leaped forward. He was equipped with a one-handed sword in each hand.

The snakes reacted at once, attacking the prey that had charged in, but to Shan, their movements were far too linear. His eyes darted left and right, tracking every trajectory. His two swords moved independently, slicing through the necks of the incoming snakes one after another.

Dual-wielding swords was not considered a very practical technique. It was slower and weaker than using a single sword with both hands, and the human brain and body weren’t structured to coordinate two blades effectively. But Shan’s mind functioned as if split in two, perfectly responding to attacks from both sides.

With his left hand, he cut the head of a snake dropping from above. With his right, he pierced the jaw of one lunging straight at him. Meanwhile, his free legs kicked away snakes approaching from below or used their bodies as footholds, leaping repeatedly through the air as if he were flying.

Watching from behind, Roden struck down a snake approaching him with his flail and let out a hollow laugh. If he had charged in like that, he would have been torn apart after killing one or two at most.

“Seriously… no matter how many times I see it…”

“I can’t even imagine who in this world could do that.”

Vent and Jerpo, thinking the same thing, laughed in disbelief. Even after seeing it many times, the power felt unreal. At last, the snakes decided to retreat when their numbers had dropped to less than half. The four of them looked down at the dozens of snake corpses scattered at the city’s entrance

“Do these things have anything useful?”

“I’m not sure. It’s my first time seeing them… If we take one back and study it properly, something might come out of it.”

“Then let’s just leave them.”

At Jerpo’s words, Vent shook his head and made the suggestion. Normally, they would take it back and sell it for research purposes, but right now, they were standing right before a city that explorers had barely touched. 

Perhaps the snake swarm they had just fought was the dominant force in this place. As they moved through the city, no other monsters appeared. Occasionally, a few snakes would hiss and glare at them, but the moment Shan pointed his sword at them, they lost their nerve and slipped back into the buildings.

“Those bastards are scared!” Amused, Vent muttered in an unusually frivolous tone, then coughed awkwardly.

Looking around, Roden turned back and asked,

“Do you have any idea where we should start, Jerpo?”

“For now, let’s head inward. Usually, the outer areas don’t have many valuable items.”

That was still true even now—the outskirts were generally where the poor or common citizens lived. Of course, there were exceptions like Sedil City, where the count’s castle stood near the edge, but in most cities, the farther from the gates, the more high-status residents lived.

Naturally, valuable items were more likely to be found where those high-status people had lived. Searching a city larger than Sedil with just four people would take weeks, even if they only hovered around building entrances, so while they still had the freedom to move, pushing straight to the center was the best option.

“Wow…”

Standing on a wide street, Shan kept looking left and right, letting out constant admiration. This place looked completely different from the mountain watchtower, Delephon, and the other Alto structures they had passed by earlier. Most buildings were decayed and crumbling, but shelves and flower pots still stood inside, making it feel as if people had once lived here. Compared to other cities where everything had already been looted, this place felt entirely different. The other cities were little more than empty shells. 

After entering the central district, they had to fight several more battles similar to the one at the entrance. This time, however, it was more dangerous. Unlike before, they now attacked from all directions. Whenever that happened, Roden drew attention at the most dangerous point to protect Vent and Jerpo, and in the process, he was bitten once on the forearm and once on the shin.

“Are you okay? Can you stand?”

“Ugh, this is nothing…”

At Shan’s concern, Roden tried to act tough and stand up, but the pain he felt was anything but minor. The bite force was so strong that even through chainmail, his bones ached, and his skin had turned dark with bruising. If it had been bare flesh, it would have been severed entirely.

“Just wait a moment. O Goddess, here stands one who is wounded... Grant your mercy…”

Fortunately, the condition of Roden’s bitten arm and leg improved noticeably after Vent’s prayer. It wasn’t completely healed, but the dark bruising had faded as if it had healed naturally, and his limp returned to normal.

“Thank goodness…”

“Thank you, Priest.”

“No need for thanks! If anything, I should apologize. You got hurt protecting me. Let’s see… Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be venomous.”

Vent, now in his early forties, wasn’t too old yet, but it was an age where decline as a warrior was inevitable. Especially since he wasn’t a full-time fighter constantly training his body, but a priest by profession.

After resolving that minor issue and continuing on for several more hours, they finally reached the central area, and the atmosphere changed drastically. The buildings grew taller and more ornate, and mysterious objects appeared, such as fountains still functioning and trees with faintly glowing leaves.

“We can’t take that fountain, can we?”

“Probably not…”

After a brief disappointment, they finally arrived at a massive mansion that seemed like it had belonged to the city’s ruler or someone of similar status.

“Let’s check this building first, then circle around clockwise from here. If someone has already searched a building, mark the entrance…”

As Roden listened carefully to Vent’s instructions alongside Jerpo, he noticed Shan tilting his head.

“Stop spacing out and listen. If you don’t keep watch properly, we could all be in danger.”

“The snakes are gone.”

“What?”

“They were lingering around the buildings until just now, but since we came inside, they’ve completely disappeared.”

As Shan muttered, his eyes narrowed. Just like they always did when facing an enemy or a dangerous situation. As if responding to his words, a loud thud echoed from inside the mansion.

“That was…?”

“No way…”

Thud. Thud.

The sound grew louder as if something was approaching. Then, something peeked out over the mansion wall. It looked like a massive, elongated chunk of rock. Considering the wall itself was at least five meters tall, its size was beyond imagination. The moment Jerpo saw its face, he shouted as if screaming.

“It’s a cockatrice!”