Chapter 84 - When he made up his mind to save lives, an opening appeared.

'Heat.'

It was an explosion. He retraced that final moment over and over.

It truly happened in a flash.

During the previous assassination attempt by the Half Fairy, they had at least exchanged a few words right before he died.

This time, there was nothing of the sort.

Only the scalding pain from the intense heat, the agonizing pain of a burning death, remained.

Getting stabbed by a sword or spear usually felt like being pierced by a red-hot iron skewer.

This time, he had literally burned to death.

'A trap? Seeing as it exploded, it must be a magic trap.'

"What are you thinking so hard about?"

"Thinking about taking a request."

After finishing breakfast and trading banter with Rem, this was the place he had gone to take on another request.

"Please, I'm begging you. Just do this one for me."

Unsurprisingly, the sewing Squad Leader threw out the word 'beg'.

Did this bastard send him there knowing what it was like?

For someone who supposedly did, the bags under his eyes were sunken, showing absolutely no sign that he was trying to mess with him.

He just looked like an exhausted soldier.

"Looks like you've got a lot of work lately?"

"The guys causing trouble at night have decreased, but recently the number of external monsters and beasts has gone up, so a lot of troops are being diverted there."

He practically looked ready to cry. Encrid could feel the sincerity in his words.

In truth, even if he was being tricked, Encrid could just refuse the request.

Even if he took the request, the same thing wouldn't happen as long as he didn't step inside the shoemaker's shop.

So it was something he could just ignore.

'It feels like a wall I can easily avoid.'

Encrid asked while thinking that.

"What if I don't go?"

"I'll have to sit on it."

There are mandatory requests that the soldiers in the unit must do, but there are also requests that aren't.

This was certainly a matter he could afford to ignore.

"Yeah, you don't necessarily have to go. But that shoemaker isn't the type to spout nonsense. I'd love to go myself, but the Platoon Commander keeps breathing down my neck, so I can't slip away."

This also seemed sincere.

When his answer was delayed as he fell into thought, the sewing Squad Leader spoke up again.

"Hey, you remember me, right? From back then with that bundle of leather, huh?"

"I remember."

Encrid had wondered if he was living with a bottle to his lips after returning to the city, but here he was, working this hard.

"I'm just worried, so please look into it. He's a man I've known since I was a kid."

"Got it."

Let's just go for now.

He intended to at least go and check what had happened.

If it were a typical trap, a poison dart or something would have flown out instead of a fiery explosion.

There wasn't the slightest sound or sign of a trap triggering.

Which meant it had to be magic.

'If it's magic.'

There was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

It wasn't a problem that could be solved just by thinking about it.

Walking while lost in those thoughts, he arrived at the shoemaker's shop a little later than originally.

Even when he knocked on the door, there was no answer.

"I am with the Border Guard standing forces. Please open up."

After knocking on the door harder than before and shouting, the door finally opened.

Beyond the door, instead of the shoemaker, a young woman stood there.

With long braided brown hair and cheeks full of freckles.

"The standing forces?"

The woman said, her eyes growing as wide as a deer's.

"I'm here for the request."

He said casually while looking inside, but the shoemaker was nowhere to be seen in there either. Instead, there was only a gaping hole.

"Um, well, my father said there was something under the shop and went down there."

Damn it all.

Encrid muttered inwardly, and.

"Excuse me."

He half-pushed the startled shoemaker's daughter aside and stepped inside.

CRUMBLE.

He could see dirt crumbs falling into the open hole.

'He's got a damn hasty temper.'

Unable to wait for the standing forces, the shoemaker had gone in first. He might have even thought that no one was coming at all.

Since he probably expected that soldiers wouldn't come easily for something like this under normal circumstances.

"It's dangerous, isn't it? I told him not to go in."

The freckled woman looked ready to cry. Then, she clenched her jaw and said.

"I need to go in and bring him back."

"I will go, so please wait here."

"No. I have to go too."

She didn't look like she had any intention of listening to his attempts to stop her. Above all, he had to go quickly and prevent that explosion.

Instead of persuading her, Encrid threw his body into the hole in a single bound.

Placing his hands on the edge, he slid his left foot in first and rode the cave ramp down. Every movement was natural.

Because it had become easier to control his entire body with the isolation technique, he could feel the improvement in his athletic ability even in simple movements.

Of course, now was not the time to be having such thoughts.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the ramp, Encrid's trained ears caught the sound of footsteps.

Casting his gaze forward, he saw the shoemaker blindly stepping into the first tunnel.

The shoemaker's daughter rushed up from behind Encrid and tried to push past him.

"Dad!"

Encrid grabbed the daughter's waist, setting her down as if tossing her backward, and shouted.

"Stop!"

The shoemaker looked back. His face was a mix of tension and confusion.

His foot was already falling. He took the step just like that, and.

Encrid felt the air compress and crush his body along with a *BOOM* noise.

Everything happened in an instant.

Flames, fire, an explosion.

FWOOSH!

"Gah!"

Along with the shoemaker's death cry that couldn't even be fully spat out, the erupting flames burned Encrid's body.

The shoemaker too, and the daughter behind him.

BANG!

As he died, Encrid thought the aftermath of the explosion would surge upward.

It was a futile death. As he endured and overcame the pain, darkness passed. Wading through the dream-like black river and opening his eyes once again, he welcomed the morning.

* * *

"Did you have a bad dream or something?"

Rem asked from beside him. He couldn't exactly call it a good dream.

Because in the dream, the Boatswain of the Black River was smiling that damn smirk.

In the past, when he repeated today, it at least felt like he started and ended it with his own hands every time.

This time, there was a sense of unfairness.

Because he couldn't help but feel it was an irresistible force.

'Does this mean they'll go to their deaths if I leave them alone?'

The father first, the daughter next.

Just how far would that aftermath reach?

That was none of his business. Because the moment they died, it would already be a failure.

'I could just look the other way.'

If Encrid looked away, those two would die. They would certainly die.

So does that matter?

It was a world of killing and dying.

And it was such an era.

Because he made a living fighting on the battlefield, Encrid had also killed countless people.

However.

'Those people haven't stepped onto a battlefield of killing and dying, though.'

They were just people trying to run their own shop.

Encrid knew that the knight he dreamed of becoming was not a great man possessing the kind of chivalry sung about by wandering minstrels.

He had to adapt to reality. As much as the world had changed.

Even so.

'I don't want to lose.'

He could just turn a blind eye to this and walk away.

It wasn't like it was a huge deal.

It was just a shoemaker and his daughter dying, nothing more.

It just so happened to take place right in front of Encrid's eyes.

And since Encrid was the only one who knew they were going to die.

If this were a war, if it were something he couldn't stop with his own hands.

Right, then he might have had to leave them be.

However.

'I can stop it.'

If so, he couldn't just leave them. Because he could stop it.

He wouldn't call this chivalry.

He would just call it stubbornness.

That didn't mean the chivalry Encrid knew was fading.

Protecting what he had to protect, even if no one else knew.

That was the knight Encrid knew.

Because the one who dreams cannot betray it.

Encrid had to go there, to see the shoemaker and his daughter.

"This is bullshit."

Encrid rarely showed his irritation, but he started his day by displaying his annoyance.

Because he was displeased with his own slow pace that had caused the shoemaker and his daughter to die yesterday.

"You must've had a seriously unlucky dream."

Rem muttered from behind.

Starting the day anew, Encrid pondered the whole time he filled his stomach and went to take the request.

'Do I have to go into the tunnels one by one?'

There would be no shittier task than that.

Especially when he didn't even know how many traps were in the tunnels.

But it was also true that no other method came to mind.

It wasn't like he could bring any of his squadmates along, either.

'What would they think if I told them the shoemaker thinks there are undead-type monsters under his shop and asked them to come with me?'

Teasing aside, it felt like no one would come.

He could force them to come.

But Encrid couldn't bring himself to do that.

Was he going to cling to his squadmates every time something happened?

Or was he going to overcome it alone?

Was the dream he so desperately wished for about standing behind someone and running his mouth?

Or was it about standing at the forefront and swinging his sword?

He didn't know if this situation would require him to use his sword, but.

'I'll do it alone. I will protect them.'

It wasn't something he should lean on his squadmates for.

"I'm worried about that shoemaker, you know me, right?"

"I know, was the snake liquor tasty?"

"It was like honey."

He received the request from the sewing Squad Leader, who smacked his lips, and immediately walked away as if he were running.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?"

As he was just heading out, Jaxon asked from behind.

"To the shoemaker's shop to save some unlucky civilians."

"... Are shoes and boots tormenting the civilians?"

No, a subterranean tunnel is.

Encrid only answered inwardly and immediately headed straight for the shoemaker's shop.

Even before he reached the door, he was greeted by the loud *BANG BANG* sound of the shoemaker hammering away at the floor.

BANG BANG!

When Encrid pounded forcefully on the door to announce his arrival, the shoemaker came out, sweating from his forehead.

"Here, look. A hole over there!"

"So there is. A hole. Let's take a look."

He went over and actually helped with the task of opening the hole.

He hit it with a hammer and used something like a thick iron bar as a lever to pry off the floorboards.

That was how the hole was made.

"I'll go take a look, so you wait here."

"Er, um, if a monster happens to come out..."

"I'll take care of it."

Before heading down, he used a flint to light a torch.

FLARE.

For some reason, just looking at the fire made him feel like he was going to have a seizure. The experience of burning to death was enough after twice.

The moment he stepped down, Encrid felt a strange sensation.

It was an instinctive repulsion brought on by the fear of death.

Encrid did not want to step inside that tunnel.

Even so, he didn't turn back. He easily overcame it and moved forward.

If he turned away just because he hated it.

He would live a life of nothing but running away forever.

There had been many times up until now when he had run away to survive.

He had regretted it every time. He didn't want to experience that kind of regret again.

Therefore, Encrid did not turn back. He headed forward.

Taking a large stride, the more he looked at the first tunnel, the shittier he felt.

The remaining five out of the six tunnels.

'Which one is it?'

They wouldn't have made perfectly good tunnels only to rig all of them with traps.

Would the second one be okay?

Encrid carefully raised the torch and meticulously examined the floor, walls, and even the ceiling.

Nothing particularly stood out to his eyes.

There were only branching paths with little to no differences.

The sizes of the tunnels were also similar.

The inside was dark, so the end couldn't be seen.

Just who was the bastard that created this crazy space beneath the city?

If he was right, it seemed like it might even connect to the sewers.

PATTER.

Dirt and dust fell from above his head.

It didn't look like a hastily made tunnel.

He wondered if it might suddenly collapse and crush him to death.

Anyway, now was the time to look inside. He couldn't help but wonder about the face of the bastard who made this.

'I'm going.'

The second tunnel of the crossroads.

'If I enter the first one, flames wash over me.'

How about here?

The moment he stood in front of the second tunnel, Encrid wanted to turn back due to the unpleasant feeling rising up again, but he ignored it and took a step forward.

He took his first step tensely, but there was nothing unusual. No explosion, no flames, no anything else.

Encrid carefully observed his surroundings.

Raising the torch, he meticulously inspected every direction once again.

This was the conclusion he reached afterward.

'I can't tell just by looking at it, can I?'

He barely had enough time to dedicate to his sword alone. He had seen dungeon exploration over others' shoulders while working as a mercenary, but he didn't have the knowledge to inspect for traps.

Things like that were only possible for those who had been properly trained.

Therefore.

'There is no answer for this.'

There was no choice but to move forward. An ominous feeling crushed his entire body. It felt as if a beast was waiting for him right in front of his eyes with its jaws wide open.

It felt like he was shoving his bare head into the mouth of a beast.

Just as he was trying to overcome it and move forward.

"What are you doing right now?"

The shoemaker, who had unknowingly followed him down, asked from behind. At those words, his sharply honed Sixth Sense that detected the ominous feeling dulled, and taking a step forward didn't feel like such a big deal.

The things he had felt just moments ago faintly blurred away.

"Do not come closer."

Burning to death with the shoemaker was enough for one time.

As he took another step like that, he felt a strange sensation again.

He couldn't quite pinpoint it, but it was still a similar feeling.

Stemming from the ominousness, it felt as though he had made a mistake.

'A step I shouldn't have taken.'

The sudden thought was the answer right away.

WHOOSH.

It was the same as the first tunnel.

Explosion, pressure, flames.

He didn't know what was hidden at the end of this tunnel.

But it was clear that they had prepared a brutal trap.

BOOOOM.

With the noise, he burned to death in the flames. Naturally, he didn't just die.

'Ah.'

As he died, Encrid let out a short, inward exclamation. Regardless of the pain, the boldness of a beast provided the foundation for him to clearly judge the sensation he was currently feeling.

Wrapping up his third today, Encrid unexpectedly felt something, and.

Just like that, he welcomed his fourth today.