blueteamnovel Chapter 242 : Chapter 242
Chapter 242 : Chapter 242
SLASH!Shartea’s sword split the death worm’s body apart.
It was not yet fully grown, but the fact that she could dispatch such a creature in a single strike proved that her skill was far from ordinary.
“Whew.”
Carlos Alcazaba, the commander of the Horizon Knights, whistled as he watched the scene.
He then turned to the vice commander beside him.
The vice commander was an elderly warrior, a man hardened by long years in the desert.
He was also the right-hand man Carlos trusted most.
“Old man, did you not say the Academy would be sending trainees?”
“They did.”
“I thought that was a place that teaches magic.”
He meant that it made little sense for a Magic Academy student to wield a sword so well.
Understanding his implication, the vice commander shrugged.
“Well, she uses magic properly when it is needed, so is that not enough?”
He was right.
Whenever Shartea was not swinging her sword, she provided solid magical support.
Thanks to her, the Horizon Knights, who had not had a single proper mage among them, were able to fight comfortably with rear support for the first time in a long while.
“Honestly, with our circumstances, we cannot even dream of hiring a proper mage.”
The vice commander reminded Carlos of their reality.
The Horizon Knights were extremely poor.
Otherwise, why would they rescue merchants and demand payment afterward?
Almost no one formally commissioned the Horizon Knights.
Most people who crossed the Carmine Desert were merchants traveling to and from the eastern regions, and trading companies capable of crossing the desert usually had their own hired mercenaries.
There were also merchants who were not affiliated with a trading company and traveled in small groups.
Most of the people the Horizon Knights rescued belonged to such groups.
Even then, they did not officially hire the Horizon Knights.
If they were lucky, they might cross the desert without encountering monsters at all, so they saw no reason to hire the expensive Horizon Knights.
Above all, many found it difficult to deal with the Horizon Knights’ troublesome temperament.
Within the Empire, the Meteor Shower Knights were famous for their eccentricity, but the Horizon Knights’ infamy was no less severe.
“Why us? Our knight order is not that bad, is it?”
Carlos asked in genuine confusion.
“Not bad? In what sense?”
“We are gentlemen of the desert.”
“…You are joking, right?”
The vice commander’s expression darkened.
The commander occasionally said things like this that made no sense at all.
“What gentlemen? If anything, we are desert beggars. That is why no mages ever come.”
The largest wasteland in the Empire.
The Carmine Desert was practically abandoned by the Empire.
A land filled only with sand, rock, and monsters.
No sane person would willingly come to a place where not even a blade of grass grew.
Mages were expensive to hire to begin with, and there were virtually none who would accept low pay to work long-term in such a desert.
The only mages who deliberately came to the desert were either self-proclaimed ones who could barely manage a single element of magic, or criminals who had fled here after committing crimes.
“It has been so long since we last saw a proper mage… In any case, do not say anything strange during the training period. You will scare off a perfectly fine student.”
The vice commander offered his sincere advice.
What did I even do…?
Carlos scratched his head roughly at the remark.
The old man warned him that the trainee from the Academy might run away, but Carlos did not think that particular trainee looked like the type to do so.
SLAAASH!
Shartea cleaved through the torso of a death worm twice her size and glared at Carlos on the opposite side.
“Yikes.”
To be honest, Carlos found Shartea’s gaze frightening.
In fact, it was very frightening.
The trainee who had arrived this time was Shartea Kudente Cretian.
She was not just an Academy student, but the Empire’s 3rd Princess.
Moreover, she was a powerful princess.
Why someone like her had come to such a remote frontier was beyond him.
“Could she be here to keep an eye on us?”
Even though they were buried in the desert, the Horizon Knights were one of the most powerful armed groups in the Empire.
From the imperial family’s perspective, they could be seen as a potential threat.
If the 3rd Princess were to find fault with them here, it would be troublesome.
Of course, this was only Carlos’s own imagination.
“What if the knight order gets disbanded?”
Shaken by his own grim thoughts, Carlos steeled himself.
He decided he needed to save people even more diligently.
If the princess saw them rescuing those in danger in the desert, she would surely give the Horizon Knights a favorable evaluation.
Driven by a sense of crisis, Carlos worked harder than usual to save merchants.
It was when they rescued a third group of merchants that trouble finally erupted.
After Carlos fairly collected the life fee and returned to the knight order, Shartea could no longer hold her tongue.
“Are you not a knight order of honor? Why do you behave like mercenaries?”
What was she talking about?
Carlos looked at the 3rd Princess in confusion.
Had she not seen with her own eyes how gallantly he had just saved those merchants?
Carlos raised an eyebrow.
“What did you say?”
“Are you not ashamed before your sword? To demand money after saving someone’s life.”
“Money?”
Was she really making an issue out of the small reward he had received?
It was such an imperial thing to say.
Before he realized it, a sarcastic remark slipped out of Carlos’s mouth.
“If you owe someone your life, is it not natural to offer compensation?”
“But you are the commander of a knight order, not a passing ruffian.”
“Yes, I am the commander of a knight order. So what? Your Highness’s sword may be honorable, but to me, a sword is nothing more than a tool.”
More precisely, a tool to earn money.
Reading that meaning in his words, Shartea’s expression hardened.
A taut tension filled the air between them.
Just as the conflict was about to escalate—
“There they are!”
PING!
A poisoned dart flew in and embedded itself beside Shartea and Carlos.
It had been fired by Lizardmen hiding behind a sand dune.
“Do not let a single one escape!”
A Lizardman who had launched the dart shouted loudly.
In an instant, the Horizon Knights were surrounded by Lizardman warriors.
***
Lizardmen.
Among intelligent races, they were the closest to dragons.
They lived in tribal units and regarded being recognized as a strong warrior as the highest value.
There were tribes like the Chau tribe near the Tsar Mountain Range, but only a few tribes lived in the mountains.
Most Lizardman tribes lived in the desert.
The desert Lizardmen moved in groups, had clear leaders, and were cunning beings.
Their scales were as hard as stone, and each individual was a capable warrior, making them extremely troublesome opponents.
“Today is the day we finish those bastards!”
When the one who appeared to be the leader shouted, the Lizardman warriors all roared in response.
“Uoooo!”
“Finish them!”
Among them was also a Lizardman who appeared to be a shaman.
Holding a strange staff, the shaman chanted incomprehensible spells, bolstering the warriors’ morale.
“Commander, it looks like they came fully prepared this time.”
“Yeah. They even brought a shaman.”
Carlos and the Horizon Knights assessed the Lizardmen’s strength.
They felt different from the Lizardmen they usually encountered, as if they had thoroughly prepared.
“Filthy humans! Today we reclaim our land!”
At the leader’s cry, the Lizardman warriors raised their weapons overhead and echoed him.
“Reclaim our land!”
“We take it back!”
Carlos looked utterly dumbfounded.
“What are those lizards even talking about?”
What land?
He could not understand it at all, but the Lizardmen’s expressions were murderous.
“Shaman, begin the spell!”
“Oh sacred god of the Lizardmen, great Navashi… Grant our warriors mighty strength…!”
As the shaman waved his staff and completed the chant, the Lizardmen’s presence surged.
They drew their swords faster than usual and charged at the Horizon Knights.
CLANG!
“Commander! These bastards suddenly got stronger!”
“I know! It is only temporary!”
The Horizon Knights began to fight the Lizardmen empowered by shamanic magic.
“This is a good chance to experience fighting Lizardmen under shamanic buffs.”
Shartea also raised her sword without hesitation and leapt into their midst.
The battle was not easy.
As they swung their swords, the Horizon Knights keenly felt the influence a Lizardman shaman had on the battlefield.
Even so, they were clearly being pushed back.
That was when—
-KIEEEEK!
A massive shadow appeared in the sky.
“A griffin!”
Someone shouted.
“A g-griffin?”
“Why is there a griffin here?”
Even the Lizardmen, looking up at the sky, were thrown into confusion.
Griffins did not live in the Carmine Desert.
A magical beast never seen here before.
Yet everyone present knew how powerful that enormous creature was.
-KIEEEEK!
The griffin’s attack plunged down like a bolt of lightning among the panicking Lizardmen.
“Dodge it! If you get caught, you are dead!”
The Lizardmen scattered to avoid the griffin’s sharp talons.
The griffin snorted proudly as it tore through the battlefield.
-KIEEK!
Seeing the griffin attack only the Lizardmen with precision, the Horizon Knights could only gape.
“What is that? Is it an ally?”
“At least it does not look like an enemy.”
On top of that, they noticed someone riding on the griffin.
“L-look! There is someone on the griffin!”
“What? A person is riding it?”
“Did they tame a griffin?”
The moment Shartea saw the griffin, she immediately realized where it had come from.
And who was riding it.
A blond boy sat atop the griffin, its wings spread wide.
It was a sight she had seen countless times in Raviedel.
“Senior Shartea!”
Radel, riding the griffin, waved at Shartea.
Her face brightened.
“…Who is that?”
Carlos asked in astonishment as he watched Radel descend on the griffin.
The vice commander replied, as if just remembering something,
“Come to think of it, I was told another trainee would be arriving today.”
It was surprising enough that another trainee had arrived, but to come riding a griffin—
WHOOSH!
As if she had been waiting, a red-haired girl appeared, flames coiling around her fists.
“What? Looks like there are plenty of lizards here who want to be roasted.”
A black-haired boy with a blunt expression drew his sword and replied,
“Indeed. This must also be a trial granted by the Supreme Deity.”
“Oh, listen to the apprentice holy knight.”
“Of course, Your Highness the Princess, who lacks faith, might not understand.”
“What?!”
The two of them cut down the Lizardmen with practiced ease, as if they had fought them before.
A griffin in the sky, and powerful fighters who had appeared out of nowhere below.
Unable to withstand it, the Lizardmen finally broke and fled.
“R-retreat for now!”
“Retreat, retreat!”
Seeing that, Radel shouted urgently from atop the griffin,
“That is all labor! Gusto, catch them!”
And so, in the middle of the desert, a Lizardman hunt began.