Chapter 18: The Rising Plague
The red of the North was nothing more than a signal flare announcing the beginning.
The North of the House of Ophern is endlessly barren. But there are places that are the opposite.
The Eastern Region.
The Eastern Region of the Count of Ophern’s lands is so fertile that even the Duke’s Household of Jiseoteu covets it. As if to make up for the North’s barrenness, the East is always piled high with abundant grains.
The vast amount of grain and wealth amassed in the East becomes sword and shield for the entire House of Ophern.
The spear to fend off the monsters that rampage in the North, the shield to block those who covet the House of Ophern.
Naturally, the Eastern Region could not help but be peaceful.
Any unrest that did arise was soon quelled by the power of the Count of Ophern.
But now, a great commotion was beginning to brew in the East.
Nameless Bandit Groups had appeared.
“This is it! Start looting from here!”
“Kill! Kill them all!”
On the surface, they were no different from any ragtag Bandit Group.
Even if it wasn’t the House of Ophern, there were plenty of neighboring territories.
Bandit Groups targeting the fertile East would appear from time to time.
Sometimes, when a famine struck, one had to mobilize to suppress large-scale outbreaks.
But this was different. Just like the rampage in Letman, it was happening too early.
“Catch them!”
“Aaargh!”
Puuk. Puk.
This was no amateur’s movement.
Their ragged appearance belied swordplay that held a certain discipline.
Those with a keen eye would recognize the depth imbued in their swordsmanship.
Bandits suddenly showing such skill with a blade?
Impossible!
Someone who had mastered high-level swordsmanship would have no reason to become a bandit.
This world is plagued with monsters and poor security.
Someone with swordsmanship could find plenty of better places to use their skills without resorting to banditry.
Even if one’s nature was rotten and they had to turn to crime, there’d be no reason to stick with a nameless Bandit Group like this—except in special circumstances.
“Burn it all!”
“Erase every trace!”
Fwoosh—
The bandits moved as one, operating systematically.
And this wasn’t happening only in the Eastern Region of the Count of Ophern. Bandits were cropping up all over the kingdom.
They moved with a unity uncharacteristic of ordinary bandits.
“There they are!”
Fortunately, the East of Ophern responded quickly.
Sensing the chaotic situation, the Count of Ophern had already deployed knights and soldiers in advance.
The House of Ophern’s five knightly orders:
Sidoa. Banlande. Erdin. Hisran. Suther.
Two knight orders guarded the North, while the rest defended the remaining territories.
This time, Suther’s Knight Order, charged with guarding the East, took the lead.
Each knight led a group of fifty squires and soldiers under their command.
When even just twenty knights moved, a thousand soldiers moved with them. Quite a force.
But—
‘It’s not enough.’
Even so, Suther’s Knight Captain, Ebat, felt it was lacking.
To him, Bandit Groups were no different from monsters.
One always needed at least double the numbers to face them.
If you missed even a small group, they’d scatter like weeds and regroup again.
In a world overrun by monsters, this level of force always felt insufficient.
In reality, most of the territory’s budget went to military spending.
It was the same everywhere.
Even aside from monsters, threats were ever-present.
“Let’s move.”
Swallowing his unease, Ebat gave the order to advance.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The soldiers of the House of Ophern were both strong and elite.
Without wasted movement, they began to march with precision.
They moved to drive out the bandits.
“There! Prepare for battle!”
“Set it on fire! Kill them all! What!?”
The soldiers and the bandits noticed each other almost at the same moment.
In fact, Ebat’s side was faster.
Grrr—
With the rough snorting of horses, the soldiers’ charge began.
‘Finish them off completely.’
Like Ebat, all the soldiers steeled themselves for battle.
These were bandits targeting their home.
They had crossed into the lands they were sworn to protect.
That was reason enough to kill.
“Fall back! Pull back now!”
But the bandits seemed to have no intention of facing off against the knights and soldiers.
As soon as they spotted the knight order, they immediately began to retreat.
As if it had been prearranged.
‘Strange. Too quick.’
Watching the Bandit Group, Ebat felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
It was not unusual for bandits to run at the sight of soldiers.
But this was too coordinated.
Not as good as elite troops, but still with a sense of order.
‘Just what are they……’
There was something more. He felt an even stronger need to catch them.
He was certain that by capturing these, he could seize the tail of a larger scheme.
“Pick up the pace!”
“Run!”
“Catch them!”
In an instant, the chase was on—pursuers and pursued in a deadly race.
Even as this happened, all across the Eastern Region, bandit packs were swarming like rats.
Unrest was breaking out across the entire Earl’s Territory of Ophern. The people of the House of Ophern had yet to fully grasp the scope of this.
Rayrn didn’t know either.
That was why Rayrn continued his own mission.
The eradication of criminal organizations.
Ever since regaining some of his Qi Art and his Magic skills improving, Rayrn had been moving quickly.
He’d already smashed nearly ten small organizations.
Only the biggest group remained—something like the Black Serpent or Black Blade.
‘The Wizard Mark is faint.’
He’d always used Magic to track his enemies.
If he moved before the mana faded, he could wipe them out completely.
Recently, his targets had started moving more cautiously, but it only took a little more time to track them.
‘The problem is, time slipped away while Master was here.’
Because of the nature of mana, it gradually faded and returned to nature as time passed.
That meant the mana he’d planted for tracking had become faint.
‘I couldn’t have foreseen Master’s visit. I’ll have to be more careful next time.’
This was just inexperience.
He needed to realize that things wouldn’t always play out within his predicted scope.
If he’d just infused a bit more mana, the Wizard Mark wouldn’t have faded.
‘The range is too wide. I need to learn some tracking techniques.’
Come to think of it, there was an art called Red-Eye Technique among the pursuit arts.
If he trained in it later, it would surely prove useful.
At any rate, because the Mark had grown faint, tracking it took a considerable amount of time.
Tracking by faint mana was far from accurate.
Luckily, his mana was close to 2nd class.
The more mana in the body, the better one’s ability to detect it.
Without that, he might have failed to pursue at all.
“There he is.”
He spotted his target—a man walking with a swagger, but his eyes were full of fear.
A survivor from the last organization he’d smashed.
‘Just as expected. These guys are so predictable.’
As expected, the man had sought refuge with another, higher-ranked group.
It was a boringly obvious pattern.
‘I’ll keep chasing. Let’s see where you run.’
Pop.
[1]Heavenly Divine Steps.
One of the Qi Art techniques of the Jegal Clan, it is known for its swift speed and low internal energy consumption. At mastery, one can outrun horses and run for far longer.
However, Rayrn’s mastery of Heavenly Divine Steps was still shallow.
He hadn’t had enough time to train.
‘I’ll add one more thing to this.’
He had one way to make up for it.
“Jump!”
By adding Magic to Heavenly Divine Steps, an art of light footwork!
Whoosh—
He imbued Heavenly Divine Steps with internal energy as he soared up.
His speed shot up instantly.
“Wow.”
So fast. Almost too fast!
Just adding a jump to Heavenly Divine Steps made the speed overwhelming.
‘The synergy is insane.’
The synergy between Magic and Qi Art wasn’t just about combining inner power and mana.
By mixing in simple spells, the power multiplied many times over.
Even now, several ideas for mixing techniques sprang to mind.
Casting Strength on a heavy sword strike would greatly increase its might.
‘Enchanting a quick slash with a speed spell?’ That would be downright broken.
He could even think about it the other way.
At mastery, it was possible to launch a contradictory sword—combining the heavy slash and quick slash.
But that was for later.
One had to reach the level of Sword Sovereign to do that.
But by mixing the two, it became different.
What kind of power would be unleashed by combining the heavy force of a mighty sword strike with speed magic? Just imagining it was electrifying.
‘Definitely worth researching……’
While spinning these thoughts, Rayrn quickly closed the gap, chasing after Parakho, who bore a faint Wizard Mark.
Tat-tat.
With each stride, he leapt three or four meters in a single bound. As long as he kept fueling his body with mana, the combo of Qi Art and Magic continued.
Rayrn climbed atop the buildings, racing over rooftops in pursuit.
At last, he saw the man he’d deliberately let escape slip into a large building.
***
‘Oh? Not bad. I can feel mana…’
A fairly large building, slightly old.
The first floor was clearly a tavern.
On closer look, it was the kind of place that sold both alcohol and women.
Mana could be felt inside the building.
In other words, it was a place protected by magical wards.
‘With my current magic skills, barging in would be suicide.’
Rayrn first donned a mask imbued with the Illusion Effect.
‘But I’m no longer just a mage who only uses magic, am I?’
Rayrn’s body cut through the air, sticking to the outer wall of the large building.
Ssshhhk.
‘Easy.’
Wall-Stride Technique.
Simply put, a Qi Art for climbing walls.
It may seem like nothing, but by channeling internal energy to the fingers in a special way, grip strength was vastly increased.
Rayrn moved along the wall using Wall-Stride Technique, then slipped through a window.
He found himself in the building’s hallway.
‘Didn’t expect me to come from above, did they? Infiltration successful.’
He still didn’t know exactly what kind of Magic wards were set here.
He’d only identified a few.
‘There shouldn’t be anyone on Master’s level here. It’ll be fine.’
Unless there was a mage on Master’s level, he was confident he could break through somehow.
And if not, he could just retreat.
Thinking this, Rayrn advanced.
His goal was simple: to deal with all the criminal organization members inside the building.
A straight hallway.
“So, like… huh. What the hell is that?”
Just then, two big men appeared at the far end, talking to each other.
Rayrn dashed forward with Heavenly Divine Steps.
“What, what the hell!”
As the two shouted—
He was already upon them.
Pop-pop!
Rayrn’s hand moved six times.
His opponents didn’t even have time to react before taking six hits and going stiff like puppets.
Their pressure points had been subdued.
“Uhh… urgh…”
They could only let out strange groans as they collapsed.
‘Killing them would be cleanest, but……
Some things are harder than dying.
If I keep these guys alive and sell them all as slaves later, it’ll be a big help to the family.
Just like before, the city guard will take care of everything.
Criminals are captured and made into slaves.
Then they’re sold.
Apparently, that’s how it’s done in any territory.
It was a big source of income for the lord.
Some crazy lords, it’s said, increased their wealth by rounding up ordinary citizens and selling them in bulk as slaves.
That’s madness.
In the short term, wealth increases, but in the long run, you’re sawing off your own branch.
‘Two down. How many more are here, I wonder?’
Just as he thought that, a chill ran down his spine.
He turned to see a strange man standing behind him.
The man’s outfit was designed for swift movements.
He was completely wrapped up so as to make no sound, and wore dark, almost black clothing.
So dark, he could hide easily in the shadows.
Anyone dressed like that and revealing themselves was obvious.
‘A trap? No wonder it felt so easy to get in……’