Surviving The Game As A Barbarian Novel - Chapter 562
Chapter 562: Destination (2)
Jerome Saintred.
There was a high probability that if I could get rid of him, the problem would be solved.
Just like the saying of the butterfly causing a storm somewhere off in the distance, if I could get rid of the biggest character that appeared in that prophetic dream, there was a chance that a lot of things could change.
Question is, how do I get rid of him?
The methodology was the problem. To begin with, secretly luring him into a dark corner to kill him with my allies was practically impossible. He wouldn’t die such a useless death.
“He is probably not dead. He will likely wake up in the palace.”
During my travels in the past, I saw it with my own eyes. Auril Gavis’s hand had gathered up the body of the dead Jerome into a fluttering ball of light which he spread to the wind, and I had a guess as to what that ability was.
Iblus.
It was a rank two monster that appeared in an eighth-floor rift as one of the Guardians, and there was a particular active skill in its possession.
Heretic Altar.
It was one of the few revival skills in Dungeon and Stone. When the skill was used, an altar would be formed at the designated spot, and the moment the target died, they would immediately be revived on top of it. Also, this so-called altar could only be created once, and it would be destroyed after being used three times.
So, to put it another way…even if we kill him, he’d only return to the city and inform the palace that I am a traitor.
The reason the palace gave Jerome Saintred the position of commander of the expedition group was probably because of this skill as well. Should the worst-case scenario arise, he would be capable of returning to the city by himself after dying.
Hah. Why did he have to have a skill like that…?
I couldn’t help but get a little frustrated at the game.
Despite thinking for a long while on alternative ways to eliminate Jerome Saintred, nothing viable readily came to mind. In fact, the only thing I felt confident about was that the prophetic dream sequence must be the failure point of all the plans I created.
Does that mean…I really am going to be executed?
Maybe I could just lay low and hope the event passed by.
Two knocks on the door interrupted my thoughts, followed by someone speaking from the other side.
“Come out, Yandel. It’s the rotation.”
Sure, let’s do the work first.
***
One day, two days, three days…
Time flew by like an arrow, and soon enough, the rainy season was over. Just as before, the rainbow appeared for a short while before disappearing, and the recording crystal captured that scene to preserve it. Once we’d given the wizards who tirelessly worked throughout the rainy season a day’s worth of rest, we finally got off the ships we spent our last few days on and officially began to explore the island.
“We will now disembark!”
Just like how Jeju Island was said to have lots of wind, women, and stones, Chief Island also had a lot of two distinct things right after the rainy season.
“We spotted a group of monsters ahead!”
“It’s a variant!”
Those things were monsters and the thousands upon thousands of mana stones littering the ground.
“If the outside world learns of this, it’s going to create a huge commotion.”
“With how many mana stones are here, shouldn’t the palace regulate this place?
Being able to obtain this many on a monthly basis…”
“Haha, that’s only from the perspective of individuals like us. Do you think a collection of this size will be enough to grow the palace’s wealth? Just the amount of income they gain from the inspection office is absurd.”
Even Jerome, who had stated very plainly that he wouldn’t care about the mana stones, sent out a warning with a stern expression. “If anyone secretly tries to pocket one, there will be serious punishments for it, so the wizards who are in charge of collection should take the utmost care to ensure that no mistakes are made!”
Didn’t you say you weren’t here to make money?
Still, the incredible haul of mana stones reignited the morale of the expedition group. The reason the palace let the army they sent into the labyrinth distribute the mana stones amongst themselves was because that was the usual practice.
“I will need to more actively contribute to this mission.”
“The gains are on a different level altogether—at least ten times the usual. I honestly had a magic tool I wanted to buy, so this is great.”
While the members dreamed of a happy future, Jerome became even more focused on the mission after seeing the mana stones on the ground. Even while picking up all the ones in our path, we stuck as closely to the marked path as we could as we traveled toward our destination.
“Your Lordship, is it this place?”
“Definitely.”
And then, we arrived at the entrance to the chief’s village. However, no matter how much we looked under the roots where the entrance was hidden, we could only see the ground.
“What is going on? Did they perhaps notice our presence?”
“Well, we don’t know that yet. Usually, they waited a little bit after the rainy season was over—after most of the monsters died—to come out to collect the mana stones.”
“Hmm, then it seems we’ll have to wait a little longer.”
“And even if they noticed our presence, they’ll have to come up at some point.
They live off mana stones.”
Unless they wanted to starve to death, they couldn’t stay hidden in their village forever.
“Encircle this tree!”
Jerome then surrounded the village entrance and gave an indefinite siege order.
After that, a portion of us formed a special unit to go around the island picking up the ownerless mana stones. This special unit was formed of agility-type adventurers who could move quickly and wizards, who could quickly pick up the mana stones.
“Mister…you need to stay safe until I return, okay…?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep Tersia safe.”
Amelia and Erwen were selected from our Squad Four. I wanted to stop them from leaving, but I couldn’t go against the commander’s order, as he had his reasons for it.
“This is unrelated to your safety, Your Lordship. Even if it is temporary, as long as you’re a part of this expedition group, I cannot give you any special treatment during the mission.”
My heart thumped when Erwen and Amelia went out with the special unit, but nothing happened during the two days they spent going around the island picking up mana stones.
Then tomorrow will already be the third day since the rainy season ended…
The people left surrounding the tree had nothing to do but wait for the village monsters to appear, probably because the regular monsters had been culled.
However, the members of the expedition group were enjoying the rare moment of peace, this only felt like the calm before the storm to me.
“Mr. Yandel, what are you looking at so intensely?”
“Can’t you tell? I’m keeping my guard up.” I kept my eyes trained on the tree as I answered, causing Raven to smirk.
What was that reaction?
“So why are you here?” I asked. “The wizards should be over there.”
“Even if I joined them, there’s nothing to do. We’ve already finished our research on the things we got from the library.”
“Already? Did you find anything?”
“No, the opposite. We’ve finally accepted that there was nothing to be gained from the objects and stopped our research.”
“…I see.”
Raven seemed to be telling the truth about being bored as she continued to prattle off while sitting next to me. “Our best gains from the library might be the summoning books themselves. The origin of names and the traits of the monsters that couldn’t be found even through research were written there down to the very last detail, right?”
Yeah, I guess that would be your favorite thing.
“Huh? What’s with that expression? Can’t you tell how great of a find this is? Even if you don’t, when this gets revealed to the outside world, academia will be turned upside down!”
“…Why should I care if academia gets flipped upside down or sideways?” I deadpanned.
Raven seemed to pick up on my disinterest as she quickly changed the topic. “By the way…you said they were monsters who called themselves humans, right?”
“You’re asking that now?”
“It’s not like it came out of nowhere. I’ve been curious ever since I first heard about it. Just what kind of entity are they? Ah, I’m also curious about the village chief who calls himself the Dragon Knight. Will he really be who he says he is? If that’s the case, I have a lot of things I want to ask him. The records from that time are hard to find these days…”
She tried to pull out a topic that was relevant to both of us, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy the conversation with her. Thinking about it now, it was always like that with her. Things just sort of dragged out longer than they should whenever I talked to her.
“Raven! B-behind you…!”
She whipped around at my shout, startled.
“Oh, nothing’s there?” I said pleasantly.
It took a moment for her to realize what had happened, and then she clenched her fist in anger at me.
“Heh, what could you even do with that small fist anyway?”
“…So annoying. You’re a baron now. What are you, a child?”
“And you’re the vice-captain of the Third Magic Troops. Aren’t you too gullible?”
“…I guess I’m the idiot for worrying about a person like you.”
“I’m a barbarian, not a human. This is a sensitive topic for me, so please be—”
“Agh! So annoying! Whatever, I’m leaving.”
With that, Raven went back to her spot while fuming, and I laughed loudly as I watched her go. Now that I could call that a productive conversation. It calmed my nerves, and more importantly, it was fun. She had honestly always been fun to poke “C-captain!”
…Huh?
I turned my head to look at who was calling for me and laid eyes on Auyen, who was sweating furiously as he ran toward me.
A whirlwind of thoughts spun through my mind.
“Trouble! We’re in trouble!”
What happened? Was there an incident? Wait, but isn’t the village entrance here?
Was there a different entrance somewhere else?
As the many different thoughts whirred, Auyen Rockrobe said something I never expected.
“Ms. Tersia! Ms. Tersia is trying to kill a wizard of the expedition group! Please stop her!”
“…What?”
I quickly ran toward the location of the incident, and I saw it.
“Don’t stop me! I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you. I’m going to kill you…! I’ll kill you…!”
Erwen was shouting as if she had lost her mind.
Amelia was holding her back with all her might.
A wizard was cowering behind a knight, gasping in fear.
The knight had even drawn his sword to protect the wizard from her.
And upon seeing that scene, I froze as my mind went blank.
I didn’t know the details of the situation, but somehow…
“Your hair…”
Erwen had short hair.
***
The situation could be summarized in a neat few lines.
Including Erwen, half of Squad Four was stationed on the exterior of the encirclement we had created. During this, a monster approached from an awkward angle, and they fought against it with members of Squad One who shared the boundary.
“I-it was a mistake! An accident, I swear! No one got hurt in the end either…!”
The problem was that one of the wizards of Squad One miscalculated his spell’s trajectory and ended up firing the spell at Erwen.
The friendly fire came without warning. Luckily, Erwen crouched quickly enough to dodge the attack, but her hair ended up getting caught in the crossfire, severing the flowing strands.
Damn it.
“Not…hurt…?” she echoed with a gleam in her eyes.
“B-Blood Spirit, calm down! Don’t you know what you’re doing right now can harm the baron as well?!”
“Yandel! What are you doing?! You’re here, so stop her, quickly…!” Amelia said.
I snapped back to focus. Erwen had changed her style to short hair, yes, but it didn’t seem like I was going to randomly get executed here.
I stepped forward to calm the situation without further thought.
“Mister…is here…?” After swiveling her head around to look for me, she then screamed when she saw me and covered her face before collapsing to the ground.
“No! D-don’t look at me!”
Huh…I guess I succeeded in stopping her?
I obliged her request and turned around.
Rustle.
When I did, I noticed something blue move through the dense trees.
“Huh…?”
Did I just see that? Wasn’t the village entrance back there?
My head went momentarily blank, but my mouth opened and said what I needed to say in that moment.
“It’s an ambush!”
The monsters had left their village.
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