Chapter 100 - Just Because Luck Isn't on Your Side (2)

"Are you sure you have to take that longsword?"

It was right before they departed from their camp and base.

Pin pointed out Encrid and Torres's equipment.

"Can I not?"

"You haven't climbed over a city wall before, have you?"

Of course he hadn't. Climbing a city wall wasn't an experience one easily came by, after all.

"I'll say it again: travel as light as possible. If you wear that thick gambeson, you'll be exhausted before you even start climbing the wall."

Pin was right.

Crossing the rocky mountain alone was a chore.

When they finally crossed the rocky mountain and arrived before the city wall, Encrid thought it was a good thing he had listened to Pin's advice.

'As light as possible.'

That was the key.

Pin lowered her stance and stuck right up against the wall.

Encrid and Torres also lowered their stances and approached.

They could see torches blazing fiercely from the defense towers spaced along the wall.

'Is it even possible to sneak in?'

A chill ran down his spine. The grass beneath their feet barely reached their shins, so it didn't seem like it would conceal their bodies.

And it wasn't as if the moonlight was dim tonight.

If it were raining and visibility was poor, it might be a different story.

The surroundings were bright. It seemed all too easy to spot someone moving across the wide plains even without a torch.

His heart pounded.

Rather than climbing the wall, it felt like they'd end up skewered by arrows just trying to get near it.

If it weren't for the Heart of a Beast, his legs might have been trembling.

Encrid's eyes caught sight of Pin's back as she led the way.

She advanced without hesitation while keeping low. There seemed to be no hesitation in her steps.

'Does she have something she's relying on?'

He didn't know. That was after they arrived in front of the wall. They had walked quite a distance while sweating profusely.

Of course, if they had made up their minds to run, they could have closed the distance in no time, but the flickering shadows on top of the defense towers prevented them from even daring to do so.

"Was the route we just took able to avoid the gaze of the defense towers?"

Torres must have felt similarly, as he asked in a whisper as soon as they stuck to the wall.

Then Pin answered, and her response was quite the spectacle.

"No, I was just planning to run away quickly if we got caught."

"... What?"

"We didn't get caught, did we? Then it's fine. I noticed before that the guys get a bit lax on bright moonlit nights. If it were our guys, there wouldn't have been a chance. Really."

It wasn't some grand trick; she had just left it to luck.

"This crazy..."

Torres muttered.

Encrid shared the sentiment, but...

If he just changed his perspective a little, it did make sense.

'Run away if caught.'

To chase after the feet of a Ranger, they'd need to send out cavalry, but what land was this?

It was the Land of the Monsters and Beasts.

It was the worst possible condition for cavalry to move.

Imagine if a griffon, which was known to love horse meat, swooped down.

A griffon was a monster that required at least a platoon-sized force of trained elite soldiers, if not a knight-level combatant, to handle.

He didn't know if there were griffons here, but either way, cavalry was...

'Not a chance.'

Then the answer became clear. They just needed to pick a day when they were unlikely to be caught and stride right up to it.

If they were unlucky, arrows would fly their way.

But what expert marksman could accurately hit a faintly visible shadow at night?

It was a bold approach that utilized the enemy's carelessness on a bright moonlit night.

Therefore.

"Did you spend the day planning to scale the wall at night?"

Coming on a day when the dual moons rose like today must have been intentional too.

As Encrid murmured, Pin turned her head.

The moonlight only illuminated half of her face, making one side look dark and the other shine like silver.

Pin pursed her lips as she let out an exclamation of admiration and spoke.

"Oho, you're sharp, aren't you? Like I said, the guys get lax on days when the dual moons rise like today. Did you see the shadows lingering in front of the defense tower? There were two at most. That means their numbers are small too."

Encrid nodded and looked away.

There were four defense towers rising above the wall.

Two guards in each tower.

It wasn't a lot.

'If we go up, there will be a corridor-like passage.'

The passage traversing the top of the wall probably wouldn't be very wide.

Since the walls of the Border Guard and Crossguard were built in the same era.

'It should be a similar structure.'

He painted a picture in his mind. What to do after climbing onto the wall.

There was a big difference between predicting and moving in your head versus just winging it.

Encrid wasn't the only one wracking his brain.

"I don't know if we'll lose all our strength just climbing the wall."

Torres was the same. He was also worried about what would come next.

At those words, Pin shrugged her shoulders.

"Since we've come this far, we have to go anyway. I'll trust in both of your stamina and grip strength."

Encrid raised his head and gauged the height of the wall once more.

It looked to be about three or four times his own height.

"This way."

Pin began to guide them again.

The place they arrived at by following her guidance could be called the outskirts of the wall.

It was also a place where the moon cast a deep shadow as it passed the defense tower.

When they stuck right next to the wall, the surroundings looked pitch black.

The blazing torches on top of the defense towers far away.

And the presence of Torres and Pin standing right beside him.

HOOT-!

The sound of a night bird heard from very far away.

Other than that, there was only the bright moonlight illuminating the ground about ten paces away, and the contrasting darkness filling their immediate surroundings.

He could see Pin's eyes in the pitch-black darkness.

They had a brownish tint during the day, but now he could only see that something was sparkling in the dark.

"They don't guard the walls as thoroughly as you'd think. Especially, people trying to stop others from climbing over are really rare. We just have to avoid catching the eyes of the patrol guards."

"Do you know the patrol schedule, or do you have anyone bribed?"

"Would I?"

"Leaving it to luck again."

Pin and Torres whispered.

To Encrid, this didn't entirely seem like a plan reliant solely on luck.

'Moonlight.'

Carelessness, and once they climbed over the wall, they just needed to hide straight into the city.

"Beyond here is a slum. We just have to hide well, that's all."

The number of times the patrol guards made their rounds here would likely be significantly fewer than in other places too.

Why wouldn't it be?

Even the Border Guard was like that.

What soldier would happily walk among a foul stench and people who begged at the drop of a hat?

Furthermore, in the middle of the night, half-crazed vagrants might even jump them.

Therefore, while their current movements might not be entirely calculated, it was an infiltration steeped in experience.

"You have experience."

"You really do have a sharp edge to you."

Who would easily imagine the act of scaling a wall itself?

That was exactly why it was actually lax.

Especially when they had already dug a tunnel to create a Smuggler's Hole.

Those who would purposely choose scaling the wall as a means to enter inside Crossguard would be truly rare.

So it had become the safest method.

Of course, suffering was a given.

From the route crossing the rocky mountain to the current preparations to scale the wall.

None of it was easy.

SPIT.

Pin spat on her hands and rubbed them together, then soon patted a leather pouch hanging diagonally at her waist.

The pouch was filled with stone dust.

Sprinkling it on her hands and rubbing them, Pin began to climb the wall.

She found a gap, hooked her fingers in, kicked off the ground, and stuck to the wall.

Even though it was built straight, the wall was made of interwoven stone blocks, so there were many gaps here and there.

As Pin climbed up the wall, she occasionally began to hammer stakes, which were tucked into her belt, diagonally into the gaps in the wall.

Slanted from top to bottom.

She hooked a rope onto the planted stakes, let it hang down, and then continued crawling up the wall barehanded again.

"Can we mimic that?"

"Me? It's impossible for me."

Encrid and Torres conversed with their heads raised, hiding in the shadow created by the wall blocking the moonlight.

Pin scaling the wall looked like a monkey or a nimble squirrel.

She did her job, letting the rope hang down like that.

Then Encrid and Torres grabbed the rope and started climbing.

The diagonally planted stakes creaked and let loose stone dust.

Still, they didn't pull out.

They didn't just climb by holding the rope either.

Whenever they spotted a gap between the loosely woven stone blocks, they would shove their toes in and sometimes dangle by their fingertips.

Both of them had covered their hands in the prepared stone dust as well; sometimes they held the rope, sometimes they jammed their feet and fingers into the wall's gaps, and after securing themselves, they caught their breath.

When he looked up earlier, he thought it would be a quick climb.

'I feel like I'm going to die.'

It was harder than he thought. Even for Encrid, who was tempered by the isolation technique, his limb muscles felt stiff and sore.

His forearm muscles tingled in particular.

Even though it was an area he had repeatedly trained by gripping and swinging a sword every day.

["The muscles used vary every time depending on the movement."]

Audin's words came to mind for no reason.

Keeping that in mind, scaling a wall would also serve as a good method to practice the isolation technique.

Looking up, Pin was climbing up in swift strides just fine.

Regardless, where there is a beginning, there is an end.

That was after they grunted and groaned their way up the wall that was about three or four times the height of an adult man.

He carefully hooked his hands and feet onto the top of the wall, heaved his body over, and crossed it.

As his feet touched the ground, Encrid thought there was no one around.

His intuition and Sixth Sense told him so. Thus, he felt somewhat relieved, but...

"You must have suffered climbing in the middle of the night."

A voice rang out as if it had been waiting.

It was a clear, elegant woman's voice.

Following that, with a sharp *SNAP-! * sound...

WHOOSH.

Three or four more torches blazed to life between the torch stands, right above where the moonlight shone.

He didn't know what kind of trick she had pulled off.

She had ignited the torches just by snapping her fingers.

It was surprising. After all, it was a trick one would only see in a circus.

So, would he freeze his hands and feet just because he was surprised?

HOOO.

The moment he felt the glare of the torches sting his eyes, Encrid inhaled the breath that had reached his chin from the climb and immediately flicked his hand.

His hand swept past his waist, snagging a dagger that went flying.

Because the Whistle Dagger's drawback was its sound, it was a regular throwing knife.

However, the throwing method was as incredibly sharp as he had been taught.

THUD!

Behind the dagger Encrid threw, another dagger flew with a *SWISH! *, but...

Even though they hadn't been blocked by a shield, the daggers bounced off midair accompanied by a sound like striking a poorly made drum with a drumstick.

Both of them.

"Well, this is just some rotten luck."

Seeing that, Torres spoke. It was a tone of dismay.

"Why?"

Asking without even looking back, Encrid subtly gripped daggers in both hands once more.

"It's a magician."

A magician?

A magician was appearing here?

That was the first thought that entered Encrid's mind.

Only then could he see the opponent standing perfectly still between the torches.

It was a woman standing across the moonlight and torchlight.

He could see her wavy long hair and snake-like eyes with vertically slit pupils.

The distance was barely ten paces.

The number of soldiers surrounding them looked to be less than ten.

And all ten of them were aiming crossbows.

'This is bad.'

It was a natural thought to have.

The moment the magician tried to open her mouth to speak further...

"Get out of the way."

Pin's voice rang out.

At those words, Encrid reflexively lowered his body and stuck close to the wall of the narrow passage.

Soon...

WHOOSH!

A sound of tearing air rang out from behind. Something heavy pushed the air aside as it passed right next to Encrid's face.

He could clearly feel it against his cheek.

'She threw her axe.'

Understanding the situation in an instant, he looked forward and finally saw a transparent barrier reflecting the moonlight.

It was the kind of barrier that was roughly visible if one looked closely.

CLANG!

Soon, the spinning axe flew and ruthlessly struck the barrier.

A different sound rang out than when it had blocked the daggers, and hairline cracks could be seen forming on the barrier.

Because the axe had stopped in midair, it looked as if it were lodged in the barrier.

"Jump down!"

Pin shouted once again.

The axe, while still paused in midair, was immediately crushed.

CRUNCH.

The blade shattered, the handle warped, and then it splintered and fell to the ground in pieces.

TING-DING-DING, CLATTER.

The magician, having dismantled the axe in midair, lifted just one corner of her mouth. It was an obvious sneer.

It also looked like a smile daring them to try anything they pleased.

Torres was the first to jump down at Pin's shout.

He moved the most nimbly. He grabbed the rope tied to the outside of the wall and used it to reduce his falling speed as he descended.

After him, Pin jumped out off the wall barehanded, as if flying.

If one executed a proper landing roll, they wouldn't break their legs, but...

In terms of a building, it was roughly the height of five stories or more.

If they fell wrong, they would die.

And yet, there was no hesitation.

And Encrid...

'If I have to escape anyway.'

He judged it would be advantageous to lodge a blade into that woman called a magician at least once.

He lowered his stance and gathered strength in his thighs.

Recalling the Squire's technique, which he had tried to imitate after seeing it once but ultimately couldn't make his own.

CRUNCH, THUMP!

He kicked off the ground.

He closed the distance in an instant and reached out toward the magician's neck. In his hand was a broad-bladed guard sword.

If it was a barrier that cracked from an axe...

'Smash it with strength.'

Split her head open.

How had he killed the magician he met before?

He just needed to get right up close and slash.

He would dodge invisible spells with his senses.

It was a confidence born from having faced a magician before.

There were still crossbow quarrels remaining, but that was a problem for later.

The magician's eyes became visible to Encrid's eyes as he closed the distance.

Eyes with vertically slit pupils.

The moment he met those eyes, his limbs almost lost their strength without him realizing it, but...

THUMP-!

The Heart of a Beast provided him with strength and seized his muscles.

At the same time, a thought occurred to him.

'I've got her.'

But certainty could sometimes act as poison.

["There are bastards who deceive the Sixth Sense too. They're opponents you need to be careful of. Magicians are like that."]

Jaxon's words came to mind.

SQUELCH.

The sound of tearing flesh.

The ensuing pain.

"You idiot!"

Pin's voice shouting upwards, confirming she hadn't died from the fall.

COUGH!

Torres's coughing sound could be heard by his senses, which grew sharper right before the brink of death.

When Jaxon had discussed magicians...

Because he had already killed a magician before.

Because he had already tried dodging spells via his Sixth Sense.

He hadn't listened properly and had just let the words slide by.

'I did something idiotic.'

Did all soldiers share the same skill level?

Would all knights share the same level?

Then what about magicians?

They were all different.

Encrid looked at the thorn-studded vine of sorts that had wrapped around his arm and ultimately pierced his throat.

The moment he thought he had overcome the magician's gaze, something from the ground had wrapped around his arm. It was a thorny vine.

"I am Retsha of the Rose Vines."

With the magician's words as the end, Encrid closed his eyes.

It was the end of the second today.

When the third today began, Encrid conditioned his body and swung his sword all the same, and then...

After practicing Torres's hidden knife technique, he switched out the thin practice stone.

It was an action taken to remember the third today.

And...

"Did you say we could disguise ourselves as a merchant association at dawn?"

He asked about the third method of crossing the city walls.