Chapter 286
A slightly clueless, yet amicably smiling personality.
Good at expressing genuine emotions and adept at scheming, though not to a degree that constitutes a grand strategy.
That’s how Kidd had perceived Leeha all this time. He had acknowledged Leeha’s capabilities but never considered him a user who would take charge proactively.
This perception was partly because Kidd mostly operated alongside Pei Wu during the national war. If Kidd had witnessed Leeha leading the reconnaissance from the Plains of March, such thoughts would have been shattered long ago.
“Luger is not unaware of Middle Earth.”
“Yes, I know that too. Despite being so vexing, he clearly understands the quest failure conditions… That makes him even more annoying! Ugh, that damned guy. Even if he knows a little about the northern trolls, krallang must clearly be a rare spawn boss mob, like Hejuit-Ka. Isn’t that right? What does he know?”
The kobold boss, hejuit-Ka, did not appear in normal situations. Specific conditions had to be met. Since the 2nd Human-Demon War, hejuit-Ka had been a regular action leader at level, so if it were already well-known by Krallang then?
It naturally would not be a regularly appearing monster.
Thus, it was a reasonable assumption that Luger might have encountered northern trolls but had no experience dealing with Krallang.
“Is he already preparing to strategize the quest while still speaking unpleasantly?”
“Uh, yes? No, we must be prepared. Even if we don’t capture it, if it appears, it certainly wouldn’t be an ordinary situation.”
Expressing annoyance about Luger with his mouth but entirely focused on the quest with his mind. Kidd smiled while looking at Leeha.
“Even so, isn’t it of no major issue?”
Luger, though quarrelsome, clearly understood Middle Earth.
While whispering behind backs, Leeha kept a cool head.
Kidd felt a sort of reassurance thinking, ‘At least if I’m with these two, I won’t be outdone.’
“Isn’t it an issue?”
“If Luger is that confident… If he could kill Krallang and complete the quest faster, wouldn’t that be better? In Middle Earth, time is money.”
“That’s true. It is, but hmm.”
Could that really happen? If Luger were a master at devising scenarios positively, Leeha was a champion at preparing for the worst-case scenarios thoroughly.
Various probabilities clashed in his mind.
“What would remain of that person if you removed his confidence? Let him think for himself, and we should prepare our own.”
“Granted, if you remove his confidence, he’s like a corpse.”
“There wouldn’t even be a corpse left.”
“What? Then?”
Kidd let out a small snort when Leeha looked at him with a puzzled expression.
“Only some pomade smeared on the head would remain.”
Wearing a peculiar smile, Leeha stared at Kidd for a long time, trying to decipher what he meant. Flustered by Leeha’s gaze, Kidd pretended to clear his throat and pulled his hat down low.
Finally, Leeha understood.
“Pfft, what is that? A joke? You were joking, huh? Trying to make me laugh?”
“Ahem, let’s meet later.”
“Ahaha, what did you say? Pomade? Puhuhu, pomaaade?”
Kidd took out a scroll. Even as he tore the paper, Leeha continued to tease him with his laugh.
“So, the ammo is still plentiful… I should list the ogre club in the auction and stop by the Holy Grill.”
After Kidd disappeared, Leeha moved too. Two hours passed quickly.
* * *
It seemed unclear whether Luger was unprepared or had already completed all preparations as he leaned against the Academy’s wall. When Leeha appeared, Luger only gave him a fleeting glance and continued munching on his apple.
“At times like this, one usually starts with ‘Have you prepared well?’ to engage in some human communication. Or perhaps ‘Would you like a bite of my apple?’ There are plenty of things to talk about, so why remain so silent?”
Despite Leeha playfully mocking with a slightly curled lip, Luger ignored him.
“Okay. There’s no need for such talk between us, right? If it weren’t for the quest, I wouldn’t want this either.”
But Leeha’s worries didn’t end there.
Quests like this might not come again. The difficulty of cooperative quests with the Three Musketeers might increase gradually.
“Damn, if he acts so uncooperatively then, it could be troublesome…”
Since they were grouped as a single entity known as the ‘Three Musketeers’ in Middle Earth, he thought it was necessary to sync their teamwork, despite his distaste, he wanted to approach first.
But if the other party wouldn’t come forward, Leeha had no desire to reach out first, either.
“Let’s go.”
Once Kidd arrived, Luger threw away the apple core and took out an orb.
“Follow me.”
There was no need for explanations on how to follow. Leeha and Kidd activated their skills to check the Chain Teleport state.
If it had been inactive, he might have thrown in a sharp comment, but Luger had already set it to active.
Shoo―!
Luger’s body disappeared, and Leeha and Kidd used the Chain Teleport: Three Musketeers skill.
Shoo, shoo―!
The verdant cityscape vanished instantly, replaced by a bare winter landscape.
“Wow… This is worse than what I’d heard.”
“Hmm, it’s chilly.”
A bitter wind welcomed all three of them in the grim scenario.
At the northernmost point outside the towns of Shazrashian Federation, Luger advanced first. He didn’t look back at Leeha and Kidd, nor did he tell them to follow.
“Damned guy, I hope he slips.”
“Good thing I brought this along.”
“Pfft, what’s that? A scarf? Gloves?”
Kidd pulled out a fox muffler from his bag and wrapped it around his neck. The sight of him, who usually walked around in a Western outlaw-like outfit, with such a suburban housewife item looked quite comical.
“Staying warm takes precedence. If we go further up here―”
“Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t just playing for those two hours.”
What Leeha pulled out was a pair of overshoes with small spikes attached to the underside.
Much like crampons for hiking boots. Gloves were there, too. Kidd nodded at the sight.
He’d already heard about the northern trolls from Ju of the Holy Grill. What was more terrifying than their might was the environment where they lived. She said enduring the physical changes brought by extreme cold would be challenging.
“Here, Kidd, one for you as well.”
“Did you prepare one for me too?”
“I did bring one for that guy, but I wasn’t planning on giving it to him ’cause I dislike him. Hehe, let’s go.”
“……―Thank you.”
“What?”
“No, let’s go quickly.”
Kidd tightened his coat and followed Luger, who was already far ahead. Leeha followed behind, sensing the sincerity in Kidd’s small words.
The next-generation Three Musketeers set off towards the northern troll village from the northernmost tip of the Shazrashian Federation.
They felt the frozen ground crunching beneath their feet.
* * *
The location Luger teleported to wasn’t even a village.
It was a place one must walk quite a distance to reach after leaving a village at the northernmost part of the Shazrashian Federation. Hence, the cold reached them sooner than what Ju had forewarned Leeha about.
It felt as if they weren’t making a stop via Moscow on their way to Siberia but were dropped right in the heart of the Siberian wilderness straight from Seoul.
“Phew… If I had raised my assimilation rate more, it would have been dreadful. I can feel the chill even at about 50% assimilation rate.”
It was clear why the chill felt despite the assimilation rate not being high. Hooo― a dense puff of mist burst forth like the steam rising from a dumpling shop with a breath.
Crunch, crunch, crack―, the sound of spikes breaking the thin layer of frost covering the hard land echoed as the three moved forward, with no conversation among them.
Even when Leeha tried to engage in some friendly chatter, it merely lingered in the air. Kidd, though occasionally replying, wasn’t much of a talker either, so the conversation would end quickly.
‘But how can this guy have such a place stored in his orb?’
That was the question the moment Luger brought up the northern trolls.
He claimed he knew the location.
‘According to Madam Ju, it’s like abandoned land. A place no giant draped in furry clothes would step foot, where crops can’t grow, and only beastly creatures roamed, feeding on raw meat and blood. When I asked if he wanted to go there to die— isn’t it obvious?’
Besides, what were those beasts?
Even without Ju’s warning, Leeha knew. Having experienced the snow mountain rabbits with giant Jin Gonggong, he knew monsters were larger in cold places. If trolls, originally a part of mid to large-sized creatures, lived here…
‘Maybe… storing places like this is actually quite understandable.’
His weapon made precision targeting difficult. The smaller and-nimbler the monster, the harder it was to hit.
Based on that, it was a reasonable guess that he sought out large monsters to hunt and this region was one of the places he frequently visited.
Crunch― crunch― crinkle―.
“Mm? Why did you stop―”
“Shh.”
Luger frowned as he turned around to look at Leeha. Seeing him crouching, Kidd followed suit and lowered his body.
‘The damned bastard, at least use a signal to stop. He’d be hit hard if he joined the army, not knowing the platoon signal system.’
Leeha, at the very back, also crouched down.
They weren’t walking on the ice like in the Arctic. A thin layer of ice covered the ground. Some snow hadn’t melted and collected here and there. Along the ridge were rocks and some plants adapted to the harsh cold.
Which meant there was plenty of terrain to hide. The three nestled in one of those rises, peeking out only with their eyes.
“A troll scout. We’re still quite far from the northern troll area…”
Luger’s ominous mumbling also tensed up Leeha and Kidd.
Luger’s expression differed markedly from usual. If even he, who frequented this place, sensed something amiss, it indeed mustn’t be an ordinary situation.
And given their quest content, if it wasn’t an ordinary situation, there’s only one thing to speculate.
“Bluebeard might have stopped by.”
“Perhaps right now, he’s in the northern troll area.”
Click, click―.
Suddenly startled by the sound coming from beside him, Leeha realized Luger was loading his gun.
“What are you planning?”
Leeha quickly tried to push down Luger’s barrel with his hand.
“Don’t interfere.”
Luger swept Leeha’s hand away— swapping cool words with the icy weather— standing upright. However, he couldn’t take another step. Leeha had grabbed the back of Luger’s clothes to stop him.
Hoooo…. Leeha let out a heavy breath. There’s no way they could go on like this.
“Answer me straight, Luger. Do we need to capture that to move north, or can we bypass it?”
In Leeha’s left hand, was a hummingbird-themed pistol. Glancing at it, Luger eventually turned to face Leeha.
In another moment of brewing tension, Kidd reached into his coat, readying himself.
* * *
Kidd had already set his revolver at the ready.
With Rapidfire & Fanning, he was confident in resolving things in less than 0.3 seconds. Kidd was sure of himself. Even with these two as the opposition, his 『Rapidfire』 would definitely be effective.
But his current deliberation wasn’t about whether it would be effective or not. Could he strike their weapons to make them drop without harming them and without attracting the nearby troll scout’s attention? That thought stayed his hand.
‘Damn, why do I keep finding myself in these situations?’
Ultimately, the best course was to prevent such situations from escalating in the first place.
“The quest hasn’t even started yet.”
In other words, don’t waste your energy. Lowering his voice with his hand inside his coat, Kidd’s words broke the standoff between Leeha and Luger.
If Kidd too entered the fray with ‘action,’ there would be no one left to prevent chaos. If it escalates to that point, it’d be disaster. Luger, possibly aware of this, slowly spoke, breaking away from his standoff with Leeha.
“That one must be caught.”
“Why.”
Luger spoke briefly, and Leeha’s question was even briefer. Following that, Luger was silent for a while.
He was clearly showing that he didn’t like Leeha’s attitude, yet Leeha showed no intention of backing down either.
Ultimately, Luger spoke again.
“The scout circles until it finds its prey. I have never seen it come out to a distant place like this before. And I remember the position of sentinels in other areas, and even if gunfire were to occur here, it wouldn’t reach the northern troll area. Most importantly, if it detects us first, even your desired ‘sneakiness’ would be over. The entire northern troll territory would enter strict vigilance. Do you need more reasons?”
___
**New Elements and Characters:**
– 키드 = Kidd (he)
– 이하 = Leeha (he)
– 루거 = Luger (he)
– 페이우 = Pei Wu (he)
– 미들 어스 = Middle Earth (it)
– 북부 트롤 = Northern Trolls (they)
– 크롤랑 = Krallang (it)
– 히쥣-카 = Hejuit-Ka (it)
– 주 = Ju (she)
– 샤즈라시안 = Shazrashian (it)
– 성스러운 그릴 = Holy Grill (it)
– 삼총사 = Three Musketeers (they)
– 블루비드 = Bluebeard (he)