Chapter 117 – The Hero's Return (7)

-Man, Captain, you’re such a worrywart.

A man with a scruffy, overgrown beard flashed a brilliant smile.

-It’s only natural for guys who’ve rolled around on the battlefield to live and die on the battlefield.

He rested a halberd, sticky with dried blood, on his shoulder and took a swig of alcohol.

-Hey, don’t get so gloomy every time one of the boys dies. They’d appreciate you pouring them a drink more than seeing you like this.

The Hero took his subordinate’s advice. And so, he planted the man’s halberd as a gravestone and poured him a drink.

The sweet rice wine from his hometown that he always used to drink.

He had been summoned against his will and told to defeat the Demon King.

They said the Demon King had blanketed this other world with demonic energy, making it impossible to send him back to his original world.

At first, he had simply gone along with it, as if adapting to an unavoidable situation.

For now, while they respected him as the Hero, it was best to build up his strength.

That was the only way he could eventually return.

About a year passed like that.

Perhaps because of the symbolic name ‘Hero,’ many people sought him out.

A desperate prayer in the name of hope.

The weight on his shoulders was heavy.

He had no such obligation, yet everyone placed their hopes in him as if the Hero were some kind of wish-granting box.

It was agonizing.

He wanted to run away.

-You’re like a grumpy old man. Worrying about every little thing. To think my first disciple is such a blockhead. Hah.

The consolation from his first master, Sir Midnile, had a way of putting his mind at ease.

Though many people surrounded him, few truly understood the Hero’s suffering.

-I will become your knight.

Siegfried, the finest sword in the kingdom and a candidate for captain of the Royal Guard, had sworn to become the Hero’s knight.

Many people came to his side. And many people vanished without a trace.

He had to become stronger.

Forgetfulness is humanity’s greatest gift.

Because joyous and painful things are soon forgotten.

But it wasn’t so for the Hero.

He was plagued by nightmares every night.

He saw the faces of the dead every night.

There was only one thing the Hero could do.

Ensure, at the very least, that the sacrifices of the dead were not in vain.

-You have already done more than enough.

-The guilt.

-The remorse.

-You don’t need to feel them.

-Just live your life, Captain.

The laments of the dead that could not be heard.

He knew it was nothing more than a delusion brought on by his guilt.

The townspeople, their bodies modified by the undying Demon King, had become monsters in the dimensional rift.

To let them destroy the peace achieved through the sacrifice of so many…

It was an act that would render the deaths of his comrades meaningless.

The Hero could not tolerate that.

As if on cue, the Demon King revealed himself. There was no need to go searching.

“Hoo.”

The Hero let out a low breath.

A considerable amount of his stamina had been consumed.

Blood seeped from afterimages that had appeared here and there.

“Grrr… This is impossible… Even for the Hero… how can a mere human possess such…!”

The Demon King’s generals trembled in fear at the sight of the Hero, bathed in blood.

Half of the Demon King’s army had been annihilated.

But the Hero, too, was greatly exhausted.

Slowly, his breathing began to grow ragged.

The Demon King’s forces formed a tight encirclement to prevent his escape, beginning a war of attrition.

***

There was no end.

An ominous energy was swirling within the castle.

Gamigin, the undying Demon King, was offering a sacrifice.

The fiend was blatantly using his forces as cannon fodder.

I knew it, too.

I couldn’t do everything by myself.

-I saw the space you created. The dimension, I mean.

It was something I heard when I went to visit Mr. Kaldoma in his hospital room.

-There were many people inside.

-Yes, like zombies. Things that were neither living nor dead. They were in there.

Kaldoma, an S-rank hunter. He had seen something inside my inventory and felt fear.

-You, what in the world have you stored in there?

I had never stored anything. No, I didn’t even know they were there.

-While trapped in the Sir Hero’s space… I saw something.

I heard this after forming the knighthood contract with Siegfried.

Most of the people who had been in and out of my inventory said the same thing.

That it just felt like their stream of consciousness was cut off. And that time passed very slowly.

They said that going into the inventory and coming out felt like only a second had passed.

Literally, an instant.

However, for those on par with S-rank…

The Company Man, Kaldoma, and Siegfried felt something different.

They saw something in there.

And they perceived it.

It was unbelievable.

And even if it were true, I didn’t want to use it.

But such weak thoughts could lead to even greater harm.

-I am certain.

Siegfried smiled gently, his voice full of conviction.

-Those friends will take up their swords again if you call.

“Hoo.”

I steadied my breath once more.

Behind the fallen generals, a great army led by five legion commanders advanced to subjugate me.

Watching the enemies still swarming in like a black tide, I muttered softly.

“I ask of you. Though you have shed your humanity, do you still remember your knightly fealty?”

I cannot do everything alone.

“I ask of you. Have you not yet lost your pride as a knight?”

I had experienced this time and time again.

“I ask you again. Do you still hold to your creed as a knight?”

A barrier of hexa tiles began to spread out from me.

“I ask you once more. Do you still wish to raise your swords?”

Blue lights flickered within my declared domain.

“A sword is for felling a mighty foe and for protecting the weak.”

Thin pillars of light fell like spotlights. And one by one, human silhouettes began to materialize.

Things made of zeroes and ones took shape as wireframes, and soon, their rendering was complete.

“Death cannot erase a knight’s honor, and so long as honor is remembered, glory shall not fade.”

The abbreviated knighting ceremony was complete.

“Come.”

My first and last knight order. My trauma, and my pride.

“Salvation Knight Order!”

The Demon King’s army, which had been charging toward me, faltered.

Beside me, before me. From within the beams of light that began to pour down, knights on horseback appeared.

The Hundred-Man Knight Order. Or the Salvation Knight Order.

The knights who had roamed the battlefields with me had overcome death and been summoned here.

***

“Hehehe, look how long it’s been.”

Hyunbin looked around at his knights.

In the moonlight peeking through the dark clouds, the knights’ bodies had a faint transparency.

“Wow, Captain, you must’ve been eating well. You’ve gotten chubby.”

“Captain. You got a girlfriend yet?”

“I doubt it. That man would rather build his muscles than meet a woman.”

Outwardly, you couldn’t tell they were ghosts.

They were laughing and joking so cheerfully, just like they were alive.

They were so much like their living selves that Hyunbin felt a lump form in his throat.

“Captain, your orders.”

The man with the halberd spoke up.

He was the one who had advised Hyunbin to pour a drink for the dead.

“Right.”

Hyunbin spoke softly.

If possible, he had never wanted to bring them forth again.

He didn’t even know why these souls, who should have died, disappeared, and gone to their final rest, were instead living parasitically in his inventory.

But one thing was certain.

“The Demon King is over there. Says he doesn’t want to fight me one-on-one.”

“Hahaha. I wouldn’t want to either, if I were him.”

“To think I’d live to see the day I feel sorry for a Demon King.”

The knights cracked another joke, laughing amongst themselves.

“Oh, right. Captain. That sweet rice wine you poured on my grave. It was spoiled.”

“Oh, really? Maybe it went bad on the way from your hometown?”

At Hyunbin’s words, the knights let out another chuckle.

The result wasn’t great, but he knew the man had tried his best to offer the dead knight his favorite drink.

Their discipline was a mess, but in its own way, this was a welcome and good thing.

“Knight Order, form ranks.”

At Hyunbin’s command, the knights stopped laughing and fell into formation.

It had been a long time, but not a single one looked awkward.

Holding the weapons they wielded in life, clad in the armor they wore in life, they raised their lances atop horses clad in demonic armor.

Ahead, the enemy’s grand army, led by a legion commander, was approaching.

In death, for this man.

Even in death, the knights could not leave the Hero.

The Hero had given all the money he earned to the families of his fallen knights.

The loyal knights had died, but their families had gained honor and never had to worry about their livelihood.

“I need to get inside the castle. From this moment, clear a path for me.”

Even in death, for this man.

Upon receiving Hyunbin’s command, the knights wiped the smiles from their faces and lowered the visors of their helms.

“For the Hero!”

“For the Hero!”

*Bwooo- Bwoo-!*

The horn signaling the knights’ advance blared.

The warhorses scraped the earth with their hooves.

“Knight Order.”

Hyunbin called out the name after a long time. He never thought he would command them again.

He knew.

With them, victory was certain.

But the words didn’t come easily.

Every time he ordered a charge, his comrades had died.

He had seen it happen countless times.

That was why he had come to prefer fighting his wars alone.

“Give the order, Captain.”

As if awaiting the command, a knight struck his own helmet with his spear, making a thudding sound.

*Thud, thud-thud, thud.*

The knights were awaiting his command.

“Knight Order, charge!”

Hyunbin spoke, as if shedding his own trauma.

The signal to advance was given.

The horses, which had been walking slowly, gradually picked up momentum, kicking off the ground and galloping forward, ever forward.

The Demon King’s army of Wolf Riders charged, wielding one-handed axes.

The pure white ghost knights and the jet-black wolf warriors did not shy away, charging straight toward each other.

Soon, the two forces collided head-on.

*CRASH!*

The wolf’s head, struck by a lance, was instantly crushed.

The Wolf Riders were sent flying in all directions like bowling pins struck by a ball, scattering chunks of flesh.

A High Orc, knocked backward by the shock of the collision, was startled to see a knight charging toward him and fled toward his allies.

*Crunch! Crack!*

Trampled by the warhorse, the High Orc was crushed underfoot, unable to escape the battlefield.

In a single clash, the High Orc rider unit was annihilated.

Where the knightly charge had passed, only pieces of meat that were once orcs lay scattered.

“Block them! Block them!”

At the legion commander’s order, High Orcs raised their tower shields and held their spears.

Among the undead legions, the High Orcs were an unrivaled army, veritable gods of battle.

They watched the knights charging straight for them.

“Spears forward!”

The well-trained arms of the High Orcs gripped their long spears tightly and thrust them forward.

The ghost knights did not stop.

The High Orcs faltered. A sudden, ominous feeling washed over them.

It was an orcish instinct.

*Death.*

The High Orcs’ long spears never reached the knights.

No, to be precise, they failed to inflict any damage.

But the knights were a different story.

*CRASH! BOOM! CRASH!*

The tower shields could not protect the orcs’ bodies.

Orcs struck by lances were crushed along with their shields, trampled, and shattered.

The knight’s charge shattered the solid shield wall like a cracked shield.

Where the warhorses passed, only red hoofprints and corpses remained.

For the High Orcs, it was a moment straight out of a nightmare.

“Stop them!”

The legion commander roared.

His elite troops were crumbling before a mere cavalry charge of humans.

He could not show such a disgraceful display in a battle that the undying Demon King himself was watching.

The beastman legion commander hefted a giant battle-axe. He charged toward the Hero’s knights with thunderous steps.

His skin was as hard as steel, and thanks to his unique strength, he was strong enough to crush boulders with his bare hands.

The knights charged on.

The beastman legion commander roared and swung his massive battle-axe at the knights.

“Uwoooah!”

The expected impact at his fingertips never came. The legion commander flinched, having cut through a transparent afterimage.

The knights ignored him, continuing their charge like war chariots, trampling the soldiers.

‘This is dangerous.’

In an instant.

With just a single cavalry breakthrough, they had breached the path to the castle wall.

His elite Demon King army, defeated by a mere hundred knights.

It was an impossible event, yet it was happening right now.

Just as the legion commander turned to issue new orders, a golden sword strike flashed for a moment.

“The Hero…!”

Hyunbin walked leisurely down the path his knight order had created. No one from the Demon King’s army stood in his way.