Chapter 109
The sight of the shimmering red Aura materializing into a snake was beautiful enough to evoke images of a dangerous work of art.
Watching the undulating red snake, Karl flared up golden Aura from the sword held in his right hand.
Karl’s Aura surrounded the sword, shining honestly.
It felt contrasting to Oleg’s, which rippled like a snake.
Around them, the battle still raged fiercely, but the two men, facing each other, maintained their standoff, standing still for quite a long time.
Despite the two standing motionless in their places, no one dared to intervene between them.
Though invisible, various energies surged there.
Kwaang!
With the sound of the ground shattering, the standoff that seemed like it would continue indefinitely broke.
It was Oleg, dripping red Aura, who first ended the suffocating silence.
Whoosh!
The sword bent like a whip, striking at Karl’s vital points from multiple directions.
The movement of the Aura, like a venomous viper, was fluid and smooth like a snake.
Just as Karl’s body seemed about to be torn apart by Oleg’s Aura, a golden wall unfolded before Karl, beginning to repel the snake’s head.
The Aura, which initially struck fiercely at various parts of Karl’s torso, gradually diminished in size, eventually losing its strength and becoming limp.
As his Aura lost all its power, the smile on Yankov’s face deepened further.
Leaping up to create distance from Karl, he didn't rest for a moment and launched himself towards Karl once again.
Unlike the previous attack, Yankov, who didn't continuously emit Aura this time, closed in on Karl, and at that moment, red Aura burst out from his body in all directions.
The Aura spread like a blood-red mist, obscuring the vision all around.
The mist's power was negligible, but its effect of blocking vision was excellent.
Just then, Karl felt an unpleasant, foreign sensation filling the surroundings.
‘…Is this real poison?’
No, it wasn't poison. Nevertheless, the strange mist spreading around began to dull Karl’s senses and gnaw at his vitality.
It felt like thousands of leeches were sucking the blood from his entire body.
His whole body felt heavy, and amidst that, Oleg’s attacks repeatedly flew sharply towards Karl.
As wounds increased, his vision blurred.
‘Feels like fighting a magician.’
Karl hadn’t met beings called magicians yet, but he wondered if fighting them would feel like this.
Looking up, the front was thick with red mist.
An unpleasant feeling; he had felt it somewhere before. Where was it?
Dragul Tsepeshi. The beastified ones. Tarantula’s spiders.
They possessed subtly different energies, but shared a common unpleasantness.
‘This guy has something too.’
Oleg attacked him relentlessly, but Karl maintained maximum composure even in the disadvantageous situation.
“Come at me! Are you just going to keep blocking!”
Oleg’s shout was heard, but Karl ignored it and raised his sword.
From his sword, brilliant golden Aura, contrasting with the surrounding blood-red mist, began to erupt.
Controlling the power being drained by the red mist as much as possible, he parried the red Aura flying in intermittently.
‘There are no strong attacks.’
What he learned while enduring without falling was that Oleg probably couldn't use particularly powerful strikes because he was maintaining that mist.
‘Going into a war of attrition like this is disadvantageous.’
Every time his blood spurted and his energy drained, the mist grew thicker.
If this continued for long, it would be Karl who collapsed.
Through several exchanges, Karl recognized the need for a gamble.
A single strike.
He had to eliminate the fellow in one blow.
This blood-red mist as well.
Thus, Karl decided to abandon what he saw before him.
And so, his eyes closed.
“Hahaha!”
Oleg laughed, seeing Karl suddenly close his eyes.
And at that moment, Karl’s sword began to stir up wind in all directions.
[Karl Meyer Style. First Form. Vortex]
The gently rising wind of Aura soon filled the surroundings, then began to form dozens of whirlwinds.
Over the ensuing feast of amplified golden Aura, the power of spirits reached out, adding more wind.
[Karl Meyer Style. First Form Variation. Whirlwind]
The swirling wind and golden Aura tore apart the surroundings.
Light began to pour in through the torn mist.
By the time not a single speck of mist remained, Oleg’s body slowly tilted and collapsed to the ground.
There wasn't a single unharmed spot on the body swept over by the whirlwinds.
“That guy… I should have listened to him….”
Thud.
The fellow, uttering words of unknown meaning, closed his eyes, and a system window popped up before Karl’s eyes.
[Quest: Red Snake Hunt Complete.]
[Reward: Elixir (Medium) acquired.]
***
“…Are you saying that as if it makes sense!”
Marquis Baltimo barely managed to keep his legs from buckling upon hearing the news delivered moments ago.
“Oleg has fallen in battle… 200 of the Red Wolf Knights are dead, 100 fled, but their whereabouts are unknown? Furthermore, what? All the northern nobles have surrendered…?”
Marquis Baltimo’s mind went blank.
He had never considered a situation where he would be pushed to the cliff edge like this.
Where did it go wrong?
“How on earth could things reach this state? Wasn't the objective military strength difference more than three times?”
Mikhail, Baltimo’s strategist, was also at a loss for words.
He too had never imagined such a devastating defeat.
Even with Karl Meyer present, he hadn't thought he could overturn a board tilted so heavily.
The participation of several mercenary corps was also anticipated, but even so, it was a power gap that absolutely could not lead to defeat.
“They say Karl Meyer appeared leading mercenaries when the situation was entirely in our favor.”
“Is that all!”
“Furthermore, the scale of the mercenaries was larger than expected… and Karl Meyer cut down Sir Oleg….”
“Enough! It feels like I’m listening to that bastard’s heroic tale! Get out!”
The messenger bowed his head and exited, and the enraged Marquis Baltimo threw a nearby glass bottle to the floor.
Only the innocent glass bottle shattered, and silence briefly filled the office.
“What should we do now?”
“We must abandon Bielefeld and retreat.”
“Bielefeld is a natural fortress and a strategic point connecting all roads in the North. If we abandon it here, we cannot plan for the future.”
“If we don't abandon it, this will be our end.”
“….”
If Karl Meyer marched north with Count Vito, Marquis Baltimo’s forces would have their supplies cut off and starve before long.
They would never try to capture Bielefeld by force. They would just isolate it.
Marquis Baltimo was not unaware of that fact. However, giving up Bielefeld here meant he could never again get close to the Emperor’s throne he dreamed of.
“If we retreat, we can at least hope for a future date. If we don't retreat, our grave will be here.”
“Heaven abandons me…!”
Marquis Baltimo, with a heavy expression, climbed onto the walls of Bielefeld Castle and simply stared ahead for a long time.
Within the Marquis’ sight were Ellenhower’s flags fluttering in the wind.
Somehow, his vigorously fluttering flags made the Marquis’ heart feel even more bitter today.
“Withdraw….”
While Mikhail bowed his head and withdrew, Marquis Baltimo remained standing on the ramparts, gazing at Ellenhower’s forces arrayed before him for a long while.
‘I should have killed that Karl bastard sooner….’
He shouldn’t have tried to kill him using someone else’s hands.
If he had mobilized all his forces and prioritized killing Karl, he wouldn’t have had to see this day.
The Marquis knew that regret, no matter how early, was always too late.
Nevertheless, he stood on the ramparts for a long time out of lingering attachment.
***
“Karl Reitz Meyer….”
Ellenhower, gazing at the Bielefeld fortress, murmured one person's name.
Indifferent black eyes and black hair came to his mind.
He had expected him to be the key to resolving this situation. Still, he hadn't known he would produce such a good result.
“They will withdraw soon.”
“Yes, and Baltimo will no longer be able to exert power. He will struggle even to deal with the North-Central nobles immediately.”
“….”
The two men’s gazes met. Jennings seemed to have a thought occur to him.
Jennings closed his eyes.
A knight who rose entirely on his own, the Knight of Salvation, the Saint, the Knight of the Lighthouse. He was a hero.
A hero such that if he decided to build his power right now, countless people would follow him.
If Karl only willed it, perhaps the greatest danger to Ellenhower could be him.
“Jennings.”
“Yes.”
“Discard the thought you are having right now.”
“….”
“There must surely be a more plausible reason why the man named Karl Meyer appeared in the world. I am neither a sage nor a prophet, but I know that much for certain.”
“….”
Jennings was a strategist, a schemer. So he didn't believe in things like fate.
Nevertheless, he found it hard to explain the unknown aura emanating from his lord.
It felt like the aura of an emperor, and also like the whisper of a grand destiny.
“How do you know what I would do, to say such things?”
“As if I don’t know you.”
Ellenhower chuckled softly.
“My lord, it seems you still haven't fully grasped this Jennings.”
“Is that so?”
“Indeed.”
“Terrifying.”
The two looked at each other and chuckled softly together.
Thus, the two reached an agreement.
And shortly after, Marquis Baltimo’s forces began to withdraw from the Bielefeld fortress.
Ellenhower was able to capture Bielefeld Castle without significant losses.
A week later.
News arrived that the North-Central nobles were negotiating with the northern nobles.
Contrary to the expectation that those who had been invaded would seek bloody revenge, the North-Central nobles did not make demands impossible to meet.
And Karl Meyer, who resolved the situation, simply returned to the County of Collo and began a quiet daily life.
Not everyone on the continent understood his decision.
But people confirmed once again that Karl was a type of person completely different from what they had seen so far.
A heroic knight.
People once again grew enthusiastic about the protagonist of a forgotten concept.