Star-Embracing Swordmaster - Chapter 17

Crying Woman (2)

There were men moving, stepping on the white snow.

The men, who appeared to be about 20 in number, were all holding vicious weapons and were walking down the street with sharp eyes and wary looks in all directions.

“Are you a guy you can trust?”

Xayar sat on the horse and asked Vlad, who was walking next to him, vaguely.

“I can’t believe it. “He’s a fraud.”

“Hmm.”

Vlad answered while looking at the mercenary man walking ahead.

There was a Goth there, turning his head and looking at Vlad with resentful eyes.

It was an unfair look in his eyes that said how could he repay my favor like this?

“I can’t believe it, but at least he’s not crazy.”

“And he was also the only witness.”

After hearing the report that Knight Rodrik was missing, Josef stopped all preparations for his return and organized a search party to find the missing person.

“Maybe it’s an opportunity.”

The weight of the disappearance of a mercenary and the disappearance of a family knight was different.

This was an accident that raised strong doubts about Josef’s abilities and could have resulted in a severe reprimand.

However, Josef was not embarrassed by the accident that occurred under his responsibility.

“It may be more beneficial to discover unusual trends like the present rather than the mediocre subjugation performance.”

A man who never lost his composure despite a sudden accident and moved to find opportunities even in moments of crisis.

That was a man named Josef of the Bayezid family.

“Black hair…”

Zayar was very annoyed at the report that men with the same hair color as his master, Josef, were missing.

“I guess it’s suspicious.”

“But it can’t be helped.”

Zayar’s top priority was always to protect Josef, but this time he had no choice.

Since Knight Rodrik had gone missing, someone stronger than him had to step in to resolve the situation, and although we couldn’t be sure, we had to take into account the existence of the woman who had summoned Rodrik.

In that case, among the current personnel, the only one who could handle all of this was Xayar, a knight who could handle Aurors.

“There are three knights left in the garrison, so there’s no need to worry too much, right?”

“That’s because there aren’t any decent ones.”

“Did you think I would have stayed?”

“But still better than you.”

“…….”

Zayar’s judgment would be correct.

It was natural that the knights who had been using the sword formally for more than a decade were at a much better level than Vlad, who had only been holding the sword for over a month.

Only Bordan, who bought his knighthood with money, would have skills worse than Vlad.

However, Vlad had no reason to be disappointed by Xayar’s harsh assessment.

If Vlad really had poor skills, he wouldn’t have been brought to the search party right now.

“It’s over there in front.”

Goat, who was leading the search party, pointed somewhere with a trembling hand.

A place where there are still traces of the punitive force camping.

There, too, Goat was on watch, and the search party that arrived at the place where Roderick went missing began to be alert to the surroundings.

“I searched the forest, but there wasn’t even a trace?”

“yes yes. That’s right. “The mercenary, who was a hunter, searched but couldn’t find a single footprint.”

With Rodrik’s absence leading to a loss of command, it was Rodrik’s squire who searched for him and led the punitive force, even if just for a short while.

“I did my best…”

It was a good initial action, but that was his limit.

The fact that Goth was able to desert from the punitive force and return to the garrison faster than anyone else was possible thanks to the squire’s loose command.

“good.”

Xayar scanned the surroundings with sharp eyes and tied his horse to a nearby stake.

From now on, I had to go directly into the mountain.

“From now on, we will form groups of three and search the surrounding area. “So that it only spreads as far as each other’s gaze can reach.”

“yes!”

The serious situation of the knight’s disappearance, the commander named Xayar, and the presence of Vlad, who was controlling the mercenaries.

Although they were just mercenaries gathered from various places, they were moving quickly like well-trained soldiers.

“You come with me.”

People gathered in groups of three.

Among them, those with Xayar were Vlad, the squire, and Goth, the only witness to the incident.

“Leader. How could you do this to me? “People shouldn’t be like this.”

“…I’ll take care of something for you later.”

“This is a scam. “It’s a scam that takes advantage of people’s goodwill.”

Although Goth was speaking in a quiet voice out of awareness of Xayar, his voice was gradually becoming more and more angry.

“I said I was sorry.”

Vlad was complaining that he had been scammed by a conman, but his eyes were sharp and he was following someone’s traces.

To be honest, I wasn’t even listening to Goth.

“Do you see something?”

“……no.”

He was diligently looking for any suspicious traces, but the snow-covered mountain path gave Vlad nothing.

“It’s useless.”

“Because I’m from the city.”

“How do you find someone who goes missing in a back alley?”

“First, I grab someone and hit them.”

“…It’s really useless.”

For Vlad, who had lived in the city his whole life, it was something that could not be helped.

Vlad knew how to make a fire, but he had never learned tracking techniques to find traces.

Looking at Vlad like that, Xayar sighed, thinking that he would have a lot to teach him.

“The sun will set in a little while.”

Zayar looked at the sun slowly setting behind and confirmed that there was not much time left for the search.

This place, where the search party is now located, was a half-day’s walk from the garrison.

With that in mind, we set off before the sun rose, but the sun was bound to set quickly in the mountains.

“hmm?”

While Zayar was wondering when to stop the search, there was something he saw.

frozen river.

There was a forest beyond that.

“Did you search beyond that river?”

“As far as I know, I don’t think we crossed the river. Sir.”

“…….”

Zayar thought about Goth’s answer.

‘You won’t find it here.’

In the forest that had already been searched once, there were no traces of battle or even footprints.

If Roderick is found, at least it won’t be here.

And also an unknown woman whose head was just floating.

To find them, at least a place farther away than here and one that has never been searched.

“Crossing the river.”

You will have a better chance of finding the trail if you go beyond the river.

Jayar, who controlled the mercenaries with a short whistle, pointed to the river with his hand and instructed them to gather there.

“It’s not completely frozen.”

“Because it’s the end of winter. “It’s been warm these days.”

Jayar, who reached the river with the mercenaries, confirmed that the river they were crossing was not completely frozen.

“But we can still cross.”

“I think it would be okay if we split up and go across.”

Although it made an ominous clanking sound every time it stepped, it seemed to be able to easily support the weight of an adult male.

“The people from here to here will cross first.”

Fearing that the ice might break, Zayar decided to disperse the men and send them across the river.

“Ugh….”

“What’s wrong?”

Vlad looked at Goth, who was groaning behind him.

Goth’s face turned pale as he watched the mercenaries slowly crossing the river.

“I have a bad feeling…”

“You’re not just scared?”

“Of course I was scared! “I’m different from great people like captains.”

Goth said to Vlad, biting his nails nervously.

“No matter what you do, you have to have a good instinct to make money.”

“okay. “You have to have a good instinct to cheat.”

“…Anyway, my gut tells me I shouldn’t cross that river.”

“Then why don’t you try to persuade Lord Xayar? “I have a bad feeling, so let’s not cross.”

“…….”

Vlad forcibly grabbed Goat, who tried to pull him back, saying it didn’t feel good.

“I don’t know if it’s true, but I predict that if you run away from here, you won’t die well. The only witness suddenly runs away from the crime scene? Even if it’s just me, catch him and beat him up.”

“So why did you hold me back!”

“So why did you see a ghost? “Is it my fault that you saw a ghost?”

Goth only frowned as he looked at Vlad who shamelessly responded.

“next!”

After the first selected mercenaries crossed safely, Xayar led the remaining members toward the river.

Jejeok-

“Captain! “Could this break?”

“of course. “If you say one more word, I will break it and throw it away.”

“Hmm…”

When I first saw him, I thought he was a bold guy who dared to scam me, but he seemed to be more timid than I thought.

“Why is the boy so scared!”

Vlad was naturally moving away from the group as he had to drag Got, who kept backing away and refusing to move forward.

Even when the second group of people crossing reached the center of the river, Goth and Vlad were still just loitering at the entrance.

“Hey! I can’t go! “I can’t go!”

“There is a limit to what you can look at. Let’s get up right now and get this…”

“Hehehe!” “Kwaeeeeek!”

Vlad tried to scold Goat, who had fallen to the bottom of the river, but his turn was taken away.

Goth shouted at Vlad with a pale face.

If you look closely, it looks like there was foam at the mouth.

“Great captain! under! under!”

“It won’t break! Do you want to just get hit and pass out and then move on?”

“No, at the bottom of the river….”

Vlad was about to burst out in anger as he saw Goth going crazy.

Before that, Goat barely caught his breath and shouted out what he wanted to say.

“dead body! “There’s a body!”

“what?”

Vlad, who had finally understood Goth’s stuttering words, looked down at the ice he was standing on.

Underneath the dark riverbed, where even the fish seem to be frozen.

Bubble –

Small bubbles rise.

“……?”

There was something floating slowly beneath it.

“What the fuck.”

No, it was something.

Things approaching with whitish shapes.

They opened their mouths wide and stretched out their white hands.

“Lord Xayar!”

Zayar, who had been crossing the river for a while, turned his head towards the squire who was desperately calling him from afar.

“Is it still there?”

The moment when I was about to say something because I thought I was being funny.

“Something is coming up from underneath the river!”

“……what?”

Finally, their presence reached the surface.

Boom boom boom!

Things that crawled out of dark and cold places.

Damn it!

I started pounding on the ice that separated the boundary between this world and the afterlife.

They asked me to get them out of here.

They say it’s too cold here.

“Aaaah!”

“The ice is cracking!”

“It’s a corpse! “There’s a body at the bottom of the river!”

Wow-!

“…!”

Xayar felt something come up from under the river and grab his ankle.

It was such a cold feeling.

Kwaaaa-!

Xayar looked down at his feet and was astonished.

It was a corpse.

It was also the corpse of a man with black hair.

“Holy shit!”

They came up quietly from the depths of the river and deceived even the senses of the knight Xayar.

The ice on the river was cracking along with the pitiful screams of the mercenaries.

“help me!”

“Don’t pull! “Ugh!”

They were things that weren’t breathing and were trapped in a place that was so cold.

Wow-!

So I was reaching out even more desperately.

Towards those who exhale warm breath.

“Hurry and cross the river!”

Xayar quickly drew his sword, cut down his captor, and shouted loudly.

“Right Now!”

While Xayar was shouting at the mercenaries in front of him to cross the river, there was someone next to Vlad shouting for the river to go away.

“OMG! OMG! Leader!”

“Damn it!”

Bodies suddenly rose up from the bottom of the river.

“Hmph!”

Vlad struck the hands reaching out towards him with his sword and grabbed the back of Goth’s neck, who was still slumped.

“Oh my god…!”

[Don’t panic! Before you move, decide on a direction to take!]

Following the advice of the voice, Vlad quickly took stock of his surroundings.

‘I can’t go any further!’

Then there was only one direction in which to move.

Having decided on a direction to go, Vlad began to head back in the direction he came from, dragging Goth with one hand and swinging his sword fiercely with the other.

Vlad’s white breath began to grow larger.

“wake up! “You bastard!”

“Hwaaaah!”

Cracked ice, collapsing river.

Those who scream incessantly above it.

That was the last scene I saw of the red sun going over the mountains.

Night was gradually approaching behind the search party struggling to cross the river.

night and darkness.

They were not permitted to the living.