Chapter 878 - A Smile Like a Boy's
If one asked if Weird Eyes' back was comfortable, the answer would be no.
But it wasn't to the extent that one couldn't close their eyes and sleep.
A swordsman should know how to rest even on a bed of thorns.
'Should I sleep a bit?'
How long would they fly?
About half a day?
If he slept even for a few hours, he would be in better condition when they arrived at the battlefield.
Enkrid judged so and closed his eyes.
Weird Eyes didn't fly by flapping his wings.
He spread his wings, which were larger than his body, and caught the wind.
He rode the wind as if a giant eagle, larger than a human, was flying.
The cloak given by the Driads clan of the elven city of Kiraheis covered his back and head.
The fiercely blowing wind was like a spear made by a wizard, so he had to bend his body low.
Enkrid closed his eyes in that state.
The sound of the wind, working day and night to tear his eardrums with a Kwooo-ah, was his lullaby.
If anyone saw this, they would call it a truly amazing feat, acrobatics, and a talent in itself.
Enkrid's specialty was falling asleep anywhere, but he hadn't known he would end up sleeping on a flying horse in the sky.
'At least it's warm.'
Weird Eyes' back was hot.
That warmth and the elven cloak preserved his body heat.
And so, Enkrid fell asleep.
***
Right after falling asleep.
Chul-leong.
It was a place where a black river filled everything.
Enkrid, opening his eyes while sitting on a ferry, looked ahead.
A purple lamp, fingers like gray wastelands holding it, and a face not easily seen due to the dark shadows created despite the lamp's light brushing inside the hood.
"It is amazing that you can sleep up there."
The Ferryman said.
"One doesn't easily get the experience of sleeping on a flying bed, so I couldn't miss the opportunity."
"...Is that so?"
Today's Ferryman was old-fashioned and easygoing.
Enkrid noticed it at a glance.
"Should I call you a truly interesting human, or should I call you a prison that confines us all? Or what are you?"
Enkrid thought there was something to add to today's Ferryman besides being old-fashioned and easygoing.
'Today's Ferryman is a bit.'
Sentimental?
He couldn't tell just by listening to the tone, but pondering the content, it seemed so.
"You aren't asking if I am human, but if I were to answer, that is all there is to it."
Answering "Enkrid of the Border Guard" wasn't appropriate for the Ferryman's question right now.
That would be stating affiliation and name.
Also, since Enkrid had never lost his identity, there was no need to say it out loud to drop an anchor to avoid being swept away by the shaking currents.
"Take it as a warning or advice."
Enkrid saw the face of a woman inside the Ferryman's hood.
It wasn't certain.
When he tried to look closely again, dull darkness covered the Ferryman's face like a veil.
"It will come when you are least prepared."
"What is coming?"
"It will come in the form you desire least."
"Is it a Wall?"
"You won't be able to call it merely a Wall."
The Ferryman's prophecy.
The Ferryman's words regarding misfortune have a high accuracy rate.
If not, it might have been an intention to instill fear in every tomorrow he would face from now on.
"'I' still wish for you to stay in today."
Until now, the Ferryman's tone had been calm without ups and downs, but only the words referring to himself echoed with overlap.
"Fall as best as you can. This is certainly advice. And you will need it for a 'near event'."
Enkrid had no chance to answer.
Woong-.
It sounded like a drum beating somewhere, and he woke up immediately.
From the sky, what happens on the ground comes into view at a glance.
As soon as Enkrid woke up, he looked down to gauge his location.
The night had passed and the morning spent.
He had flown through the night.
In between, he chewed on the long jerky Aurelia had prepared, and the fruit dish called Elven Grace that Shinar had given him.
In the elven city Kiraheis, there really is such a thing as fruit cuisine, and he had eaten it a few times, but the fruit Shinar gave was richer in nutrients compared to other elven fruit dishes.
It was very sweet, and eating just one made his stomach warm.
'Marcus once served tea like this.'
Was it when he was a battalion commander?
It was tea boiled with a few dried berries found in the mountains.
The color was black, and he said it was a method learned and improved from the North.
Honestly, the taste was terrible.
Bitter and spicy.
"You drink it hot."
Furthermore, it was only meaningful to drink it when it was hot enough to numb the tongue.
Did he call it medicinal tea that naturally generated heat in the bodies of those staying in cold places?
That tea tasted terrible, but among the teas served on other days, there were many excellent ones.
Since he was the only person around who enjoyed tea and brewed it well, his dying wasn't very pleasing.
Also, he didn't wish for the orange-haired woman who followed him to die either.
Kwooo-ah-
The wind, which still aimed to tear his eardrums and kill him, brushed past his ears.
"Weird Eyes, let's go faster."
Speaking while flying relieves the worry of biting one's tongue.
Simply because flying in a gliding form doesn't make the body shake up and down.
Well, it was hard for the voice to be conveyed, but the only member of The Madmen Knights who had quadrupedal movement as a specialty and now gliding as a specialty was able to hear Enkrid's heart.
In fact, it was also thanks to Enkrid pouring Will into both hands and pulling the mane to express his will with all his might.
***
This was the place they arrived after flying and flying.
Enkrid didn't take everything into his view, nor did he put effort into grasping the war situation.
'Aishia.'
He confirmed the existence of the orange-haired knight, saw the location of Marcus and the allies, and saw the location of the two disasters with hands and feet.
That was enough to set a direction for movement.
Enkrid wrapped his legs around Weird Eyes' belly with force.
"Starting from over there."
Words meant for Marcus to hear, and also words conveying his will to the enemy knight.
A technique of conveying voice imbued with Will.
The ceaseless training in the meantime was worth it.
Enkrid was certain his voice reached Marcus and the disaster holding a spear approaching from the front.
When Enkrid put strength into his legs, the clever member Weird Eyes understood the meaning immediately.
From a gliding state, he dropped altitude straight down.
It felt like his organs were shooting up, but for the organs to actually exit the body, they would first have to pierce through trained muscles and skin, and even that wasn't enough; they would have to tear through the War God's leather armor made of Beelrog hide.
Since he only had to be careful about things coming out of his mouth, Enkrid just had to clench his molars tight.
Of course, there was no actual event of organs escaping.
It was just a descent similar to a sudden fall.
A javelin flew toward him as he flew.
It was a skill that seemed accustomed to throwing spears, calculating even the speed at which Weird Eyes would dive.
If left alone, the time to intervene would be delayed, and then he would only meet the orange-haired friend at her tombstone.
Enkrid recognized the situation and threw his body.
Weird Eyes twisted his waist to help his fall.
The cloak fluttered with a loud noise and then stuck to his back.
As the falling speed increased, the javelin thrown from below approached right in front of his eyes like lightning.
'Fall as best as you can.'
Enkrid accepted the Ferryman's advice.
Dawnforged, already drawn, struck the lightning-like javelin.
Tang!
Just striking it would have been an amazing feat, but Enkrid struck the javelin and used that force to fling his body.
His body spun in the air, and his falling speed increased further.
The target was above the head of the greatsword owner, whose sword seemed about to touch the orange-haired woman's neck.
'The best defense is offense.'
He didn't know if the saying fit here, but as long as the meaning got across, wouldn't anything do?
'One could say the best rescue is offense.'
It was a thought that intruded into his stretched thinking.
If she ignored the Dawn he swung, Aishia would die.
But the owner of the greatsword would have to give up an arm or be prepared for a fairly deep stab wound.
If she trusted the hardness of her pauldron and armor and endured, that would really happen, but the owner of the greatsword acted rationally.
Knight Mattia did not blindly trust defense techniques utilizing only armor.
Instead, she always trusted the thick blade that substituted for a shield.
Her faith was rewarded.
Kwang!
Dawn smashed onto the greatsword.
Knight Mattia appropriately adjusted the angle of the greatsword to deflect the force.
It was a sword strike from a guy falling like a meteor from the sky.
Taking that strike, while disregarding her own body, entirely with strength would be a stupid act.
It was the correct answer.
Enkrid's Dawn flowed along Mattia's Rock Cutter.
Kagagagak!
The two inscribed weapons rejected each other as soon as they met and parted.
The meeting was short and the parting fast.
Mattia deflected the force roughly and then pushed the greatsword forward to shove the opponent.
Enkrid did not reject that force and flew backward.
Falling on his back would cause some pain, but if that saved Aishia, it was a profitable trade.
However, Enkrid's expectation was slightly off.
Instead of falling on his back, someone placed a hand on his back to reduce the impact.
That was enough, so Enkrid used that force to plant his feet on the ground.
Deudeudeudeu-
The soles of his boots withstood the remaining force.
Enkrid and Aishia, who stretched out her hand behind him, were pushed back quite a distance.
Four furrows were dug where the two stood.
"You."
Aishia said from behind.
Her appearance was a bit unsightly.
Cuts here and there, disheveled hair, and especially a bad wound on her left forearm.
Enough to make her bandage it tightly right away, find a high priest, offer three times the usual donation, kneel, sing of God's mercy, and wish for His divinity.
"If you don't take proper care of your appearance, marriage is out of the question. Aishia. A man doesn't fall for you because you beat him up."
"...Damned bastard."
The greeting conveyed to the orange-haired friend seen after a long time awakened her fighting spirit.
Since it was just when she had to face the enemy and fight, it was a truly appropriate measure.
Aishia had just crossed the line of death.
And more than three times at that.
'I was lucky.'
The whimsical Goddess of Luck was on her side today.
The first luck was that inspiration for a few techniques had come recently, and she had polished them.
'It could have been the wrong direction.'
If all inspiration were correct, there would be no one in the world who wasn't a genius.
Words of a famous philosopher—whose name he couldn't remember.
Fortunately, this inspiration was clothes that fit her body and seemed to be a signpost with erased letters pointing towards the destination called knight.
Like a sign telling her not the way to go forward, but that the way she had walked so far was correct.
'Bind and tighten.'
Based on a heavy sword, give restraint to the opponent knight's whole body.
Activate Will to go beyond visualizing murderous intent and spread invisible, sticky spiderwebs.
Likening it to will, push with momentum to buy a little time.
The first luck held onto the trouser leg of one of the disasters like that.
The second luck was that the opponent knight showed interest in her.
She didn't strike with full power at once.
She struck as if testing.
Just with that, Aishia faced a threat to her life, but luck is luck.
The third luck was purer than the previous two.
During the exchange, she deflected the opponent's force and shook the sword tip to scatter her gaze, and the woman holding the greatsword saw through it at once and kicked her ankle.
Aishia used the force of being kicked momentarily to spin in the air and strike down with her sword.
With that, the sword tip drew a larger vibration and trajectory than what she shook and scattered.
The technique attempted with half her life on the line properly blocked the enemy's hands and feet once.
Then she learned for the first time that a greatsword is useful for stabbing, and with that, her left arm almost bid farewell to her body and left.
Honestly speaking, she didn't even realize when the scratch on her neck occurred.
A knight is a knight.
Enduring this far was a miracle.
Just at the moment she was prepared for death, the last luck fell like a meteor.
At an unexpected moment, in an unexpected form.
At the words spat out subsequently, Aishia got angry instead of laughing.
That was what the opponent wanted.
Should he call it Enkrid-style encouragement not to give up?
It didn't seem like words like 'Cheer up', 'This isn't the end' would come out of that fellow's mouth.
A crazy person who would fight even if he died soon, and advance even if he had to crawl in the end.
Aishia steadied her breath and focused her attention on the two standing in front and behind.
In front was the knight holding a greatsword, and behind, the fellow holding a long spear who had gone ahead earlier returned.
In other words, there were two knights.
If asked if it was an encirclement with only two, he would tell the asker the story of a knight encircling a thousand soldiers alone.
"What is it, a Pegasus? You rode that here?"
The knight holding the greatsword asked.
Short hair and an angular jaw gave a sturdy impression that one might believe if told she was a man at a glance.
Aishia was inwardly surprised to see what Enkrid rode in on, but since it wasn't the time to be surprised, she ignored it and focused on the thoughts needed now.
That is, she asked herself if she could buy time.
'No way.'
Even when both arms were fine, she endured with luck.
Now it's impossible.
'If I stake my life?'
Then could she really buy time to swing her sword once?
Even that felt difficult.
Wasn't the momentum the two knights were radiating different from before?
"You step back."
Enkrid said.
Aishia clenched her molars.
She said what she had to say.
"There are two opponents."
Enkrid answered with a nonchalant attitude.
"Yeah, so?"
He turned his body, leaving Aishia behind.
A stance with enemies on the left and right.
Doing so, he subtly put Aishia behind his back.
If they were equal knights, the side with two would be overwhelmingly advantageous.
It was a natural statement.
But in this situation, the human named Enkrid smiled.
The corners of his mouth went up.
It was a smile like a boy expecting what would happen next.
***
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