Chapter 825 - Deep-Rooted Faith
Luagarne knew her age was not inferior to that of the elf named Shinar.
That was why, from a certain point on, she had forgotten to count her age.
However, she only remembered that this was her fourth life.
She had divided her life into four, based on what she was pursuing.
Her immediately preceding third life was about protecting a charming woman.
Something that is not a big deal to one person is something another must do, even if it means selling their soul.
Because she did not weigh the importance of the task, she had been able to devote herself to protecting the former queen of Naurillia.
Though not every day was joyful, it was a life that was interesting in its own way.
And before that, there had been a time when she had bet her life on the extermination of heretics.
Of course, even considering that she was a frog, Luagarne was an unusual case.
Normally, one would not repeat their life four times.
In any case, Luagarne knew she could not remember everything from her past lives, and so she had only committed the major incidents to memory.
One of them was the appearance of the Salamander.
'Heretics.'
She didn't know how the actual summoning of the Salamander had been carried out, but she knew that heretics had offered hundreds of their followers as sacrifices.
The memories of that time were on the verge of vividly returning.
'It's stinging.'
It was a scorching sun that dried up all the moisture.
At some point, the surrounding temperature had shot up, and the dampness had disappeared.
The humidity was low, but the heat felt as if it would constrict, twist, and burn the skin.
She felt like she was inside a heated iron cauldron.
Because she was a frog, she was the most sensitive in this regard.
"Isn't it a bit hot today?"
Such words were commonly heard among the passing soldiers.
Sweat wasn't pouring down, but the sun was too hot.
It should get a little better in the shade, but it was a day where a hot wind was blowing from somewhere.
When Luagarne went to the knight order's exclusive training grounds, she saw a human she had seen in passing before, standing there blankly.
Next to him was a deputy from Rem's Strike Force, and next to him, Finn, the captain of the Pen-Hanil Rangers.
"What was that?"
Rem, who had arrived before her, asked while picking his ear, and his deputy answered.
"Some kind of fireball is walking around. What should we do? Beat them all up?"
It was an answer worthy of a member of Rem's unit.
"Not that, didn't she just say a Salamander is waking up in there?"
Then the man next to him spoke.
"It has not been visually confirmed, but we have confirmed some rather dangerous traces."
Finn finished.
"No, what did you say before that?"
Rem asked again.
"...Sir Enkrid said to tell you he was going on ahead."
The answer came from Garet.
As if he couldn't even hear the words that a Salamander had appeared, Rem focused only on the message Enkrid had left.
"Wow, this is fun. I'm going on ahead too. See you there!"
And Rem also ran.
"Do you even know where you're going?"
His deputy followed behind him.
"You can guide me."
"I don't know either."
"We'll figure it out as we go. Unless you're a cripple who can't even find a single path."
Luagarne quietly listened to what had happened, and at a point where one would normally be flustered, she accelerated her thoughts.
'A Salamander has appeared?'
It could be true, or it could be a mistake.
In any case, a response was necessary.
And just now Rem had shown his back, and Enkrid had already entered the Pen-Hanil Mountains.
At the end of her instantaneous thoughts, Luagarne's mouth opened.
It was a rather loud sound, though not quite a frog's croak.
"Countless flame monsters will be created in the surrounding area."
Rem glanced back.
It was because he had felt something like urgency in Luagarne's tone.
Unlike his appearance, Rem had a sharp mind.
He had read her worry.
If a horde of flame monsters poured out, who would stop them?
Just as there would be no one to raise the cows if everyone left the countryside, it meant that an asymmetric force was also needed to stay here and block the flame monsters.
"Don't worry. You think the kids are statues or something? They'll fight well on their own."
Even to Luagarne's mind, he wasn't wrong.
Then, Rem kicked the backside of his unit member.
"Aren't you going to run faster?"
It was a gesture of someone who couldn't stand the thought of his captain having all the fun because he was late.
"No, is this right?"
Garet muttered to himself.
Finn was not flustered.
She had expected this to some extent.
'They're not called The Order of the Madmen Knights for nothing.'
She thought.
Luagarne briefly recalled the events that had occurred when the fire-breathing lizard monster had been active.
The first problem had been the followers.
A group formed from a splinter faction of the Demon Realm Holy Land Cult; they had committed mad acts.
They had burned crops, burned cities, and burned people.
It was said they had burned everyone from newborn babies to the elderly and offered them as sacrifices without discrimination.
'Did they say they were going to build a temple of flames?'
The Salamander was a god, and the wrath of that god had now descended upon this land, so they had said he must be served.
In reality, the majority of them, the followers, had been swept up in the flames the Salamander had caused and had turned to ash.
"O, God! Release your an—."
Before he could finish his words, the flames had covered that land.
'Even though that had happened, followers remained.'
Though there were few now, a fanatical group that served the Salamander as a god still existed.
They were madmen who did not hesitate to burn people.
The second problem was the authority of the demon-class monster called the Salamander itself.
'It spews forth living monsters.'
That is to say, it infinitely generates monsters made of flames.
Even the forbidden spell called 'Walking Fire' was merely an imitation of this monster's authority.
These two problems had magnified the incident caused by the monster several times over.
And so, the tragedy of the Salamander had begun.
Now was no different from then.
'These are the preliminary symptoms.'
The flame monsters and beasts.
'Next is the flame giant.'
And after that, all sorts of monsters made of fire would emerge.
"Who's going where?"
While Luagarne was lost in thought for a moment, Ragna also arrived.
He had tied up his blond hair—probably Anne's handiwork—and asked nonchalantly.
"They went ahead, inside. Sir Enkrid first, then Sir Rem."
Garet's briefing was short.
Finn saw no need to add any more words.
Ragna, upon hearing that, left a single remark and set off.
"You should attach 'bastard' to Rem, not 'sir'."
The official designation was Rem the Bastard, not Sir Rem.
Ragna sincerely believed so.
Garet was at a loss for words.
What is this crazy bastard talking about?
Though he knew that The Order of the Madmen Knights was not normal, it wasn't easy to get used to it up close.
Finn, who had been watching Ragna, naturally stood by his side.
Finn knew Ragna.
He was a person who should absolutely not be sent alone.
If she let him go here, he was the type of man who might end up in the south later.
"I'll guide you."
Finn said.
Ragna even tilted his head.
"Is that necessary?"
"Yes, it is."
Finn followed behind him and gestured with her eyes to Garet.
It meant for him to get on with his work.
Garet did not ask back what his work was.
Because it was obvious.
It was to relay the message to those who came.
A messenger.
Even though he had served as a battalion commander and retired.
He could play the part of a messenger a hundred, even a thousand times.
He didn't really care about something like that.
What was important was this.
Why did these bastards have no sense of crisis?
"So, is this the right thing to do?"
Garet muttered.
The Salamander was a danger greater than a decent-sized Demon Realm.
It was a monster that had sucked in knights by the dozens and had scorched and killed several righteous magicians by the dozens as well.
It was no different from a natural disaster.
There were even talks that the number of knights on the continent had decreased compared to the previous era because of these large-scale disasters.
Since some scholars had posited that if there had been no such large-scale disasters, the number of knights would be double what it is now.
Whatever it was, it was the advent of a calamity.
'Is it right to go and face something like that?'
Garet's thoughts became even more complicated.
The state of him constantly asking himself questions as if talking to himself represented his psychology.
It was a dual-mindedness of thinking that since this was the kingdom's main fighting force, the knight order, this seemed right, but also wondering if it was right to charge in like that without preparation.
"It isn't right."
The female frog named Luagarne approached and said so.
Garet saw that the only one here who he could talk to was this frog.
Right? It isn't normal, is it?
Garet said with a look in his eyes.
It was what he had wanted to say all along.
"We need to come up with a countermeasure. We need to send a messenger to the kingdom right away and call for the Crimson Cloak Knight Order as well."
Garet was also a former battalion commander.
He knew how an army worked.
In his common sense, the Salamander was like a meteor fallen from the sky.
It was on the same level as a natural disaster or a calamity.
You can't avoid it even if you know it's coming.
Even if knights were called a calamity, that was just a metaphor.
It was just a part of a figurative expression.
This was a real calamity.
If a star dies and falls, no one in the vicinity can live.
The Salamander was that dying star.
"But if they can't stop it, no one can do it anyway."
Luagarne knew the hell created by the surrounding flame monsters at the time of the Salamander's appearance.
She also now knew the training level and state of armament of the Border Guard's standing army.
Rem was right.
The standing army was not just an army in name only.
The Border Guard's standing army was a group created by the monster named Krais, who did not waste even a single copper coin, pouring gold into military expenses.
"Huh? Uh, hmm, that seems to be right, too."
Garet, his thoughts tangled, said.
And then.
"Who came and what happened?"
In the meantime, even Jaxen came and asked.
The training ground was right in front of their quarters.
It was no different from a nest where the Madmen Knights stayed.
It was a place where they would return one by one when the time came.
"Inside, a Salamander…"
Garet's explanation this time was even more concise.
Jaxen patted Garet's shoulder.
He treated him like an old, aged soldier.
"You've worked hard."
Jaxen is surprisingly good at treating the soldiers under his command well.
If one worked hard to come here and even made a report, it was right to acknowledge them.
"Well, uh, I did work hard."
While Garet was muttering, Jaxen had already moved and disappeared.
Anyone could tell that something was happening in there without being told.
Jaxen's sixth sense was already spewing warnings.
Even without a guide, it wouldn't be difficult to head toward the destination.
"Where has my fiancé gone?"
Next, the elf came out and asked, and Garet finished his explanation with even more essential content than before.
"Suspicion of Salamander appearance inside the mountain range. Sir Enkrid, leading a part of the knight order, has entered the mountain range."
The habits from his military days, forgotten while living as a bard, had returned.
And not from his time as a battalion commander, but from the days when he had first gone to war and had been a small unit commander.
"But why are you still here?"
Shinar knew Garet's face.
Because she remembered that they had been in the same unit at one point.
That was why she had asked, but.
"Ah, that's."
Garet was answering but then shut his mouth.
Was there anything to say when the elf who had asked showed not the slightest interest and just disappeared with a whoosh?
At some point, instead of the green eyes that had been looking at him, he could only see the back of a blond head.
The small head quickly became smaller.
The footwork of her running was incredibly light and fast.
She quickly left the training grounds and ran in a straight line toward the mountain range.
"...Even though I was a battalion commander at one point."
Garet muttered, but those who came after him did not treat him any differently.
"Messenger brother, you've worked hard."
The apostle of the war god who resembled a bear beastkin passed by.
"Lady Rua, you said you know something?"
The knight order member named Ropord, who appeared next, finished grasping the situation and found his own task.
It was one thing to go in there and lend a hand in the fight, but.
"Some monsters will come down and spread fire around."
As Luagarne had said, this was not something they could just leave alone.
And all this news was quickly relayed to Krais and Abnaier, and Krais, without the slightest hesitation, commanded.
"Sound the emergency alert for the standing army, form a defensive line, and do not relay the news to the city. If we evacuate now, they'll trample each other to death while running away."
Krais was firm.
And he trusted.
The roots of his faith, that the value of the gold coins he had sown would not be in vain, were truly deep and thick.
***
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