The Soldier Shouted Save - Chapter 32
Only Noblemtl
The soldier shouted save (32)
“You’re saying that cannabis never existed in the first place? What do you mean?”
The reason the Walker family spent so much money to form a punitive expedition team was to eradicate the great monster that parasitized the World Tree, Mentis.
“There’s no reason to lie and say something isn’t there, right?”
I showed Hye-rin the documents I had prepared in response to her questioning words.
“I’ll put it here, so you read it and decide.”
After letting Hye-rin read the documents, I looked through the books and documents in the study and searched for other materials.
After looking through it with a groan, Hye-rin reads the document out loud, perhaps figuring out the context.
“… If you have the druid’s magic, you can communicate with animals from a distance? The druid and the great beast Mentis have similar skills?”
“It’s not similar. The eldest son found a demonic substance that has similar characteristics to a druid.”
“… … For what reason?”
“That’s something we need to find out from now on.”
-Knock knock.
I was tapping the back of my hand on the locked drawers, and then I tapped the bottom of one drawer and frowned.
‘Only here is there no sound.’
A space underneath a drawer where you can’t hear a sound even if you hit it hard with the back of your hand.
I took a step back and gestured towards Hye-rin.
“Here, it’s locked. Dispel.”
At those words, Hye-rin hands me the documents she was looking at and extends her index finger while shouting out a greeting.
“Nihilum.”
Dispel, a spell that removes magic.
-Clang.
I could hear the sound of glass breaking, or rather being crushed by strong pressure.
The bottom of the drawer compartment separates to reveal a hidden double drawer.
“Eww, what is this? It’s just a bunch of numbers written on it.”
A document containing the date, quantity, and amount.
Looking at the most recent date, there is a record of a bulk purchase of goods at twice the market price.
… … Then, this is it.
“The World Tree Leaves. I am the one who bought the World Tree Leaves for a year.”
It wasn’t a clean-looking ledger.
A ledger that records only what is necessary for transactions, as if it was difficult for one person to lead all transactions on his own.
‘… At first I bought them at the market price, but recently I bought all the leaves of the world tree at double the price.’
The reason why I was suddenly able to buy the World Tree leaves at more than double the price was because my eldest son had a lot of money coming his way.
An astronomical amount of money that even the nobles find difficult to touch.
‘In the first place, why did you buy the World Tree leaves that your family sells?’
While I was wondering where the money came from and why I had purchased the World Tree leaves, I heard a noise outside.
-Knock, knock.
The sound of footsteps passing by the door.
“Kyle, are you in there?”
At the sound of someone coming in at any moment, I took out my dagger from next to the door and held my breath.
However, the repeated knocking soon stopped.
-Thump, thump.
The man’s footsteps gradually grew distant.
“Ugh, ahh, I’m so nervous my heart hurts… …. Can we go out now?”
The key is already in hand.
I spoke to Hye-rin as I scattered the documents as if they had collapsed in a pile, trying to hide the missing documents, and stuffed the inside of the double drawer with the first page of the ledger and other bundles of documents.
“Let’s go out.”
Hye-rin opens her mouth as if she has been waiting for my words.
“Migratio.”
The teleportation magic Migratio appeared and wrapped Hye-rin’s body in blue particles.
* * *
After leaving the eldest son’s room, we headed straight to the second daughter.
“Your Majesty, what on earth is this?”
When the second daughter, with her face turned pale, asked while looking at the documents spread out on the table, I blurted out the truth.
“All of it was taken from Kyle’s room.”
Not only did he break into the next lord’s room without permission, he even stole important documents, but the second daughter did not raise her voice.
I just sat there silently, reading the documents over and over again.
“… How could this happen?”
The second daughter, who seemed to have realized something, puts the documents down on the table and lowers her head so that her long hair covers her face.
“Your Majesty, how much do you know about this matter?”
“I know that the target of the subjugation, the great demon Mentis, does not exist and that Kyle has been secretly purchasing the World Tree leaves for the past year.”
The second daughter tries to say something to me, but swallows it.
A look of hesitation, with a deep sigh.
Perhaps it was because I had built trust with my younger sister, but she stared at my face for three seconds before telling me the truth.
“The non-existent hemp, Mentis. My brother received a large sum of money from my father for the punishment of this hemp. And it is written here that he used all of that money to buy World Tree leaves.”
Hye-rin, who had been nodding her head in agreement to the second daughter’s words, shouted with a surprised face as if she had realized something.
“Wait a minute! You spent all the money you were given? What about our salaries?!”
“… … My father left all the money for the punishment to my brother. Perhaps, the Walker family does not have the money to pay the reward.”
Is this possible?
I frowned as I recalled my eldest son’s speech and asked my second daughter.
“Didn’t you receive a contract guarantee from four organizations including the Imperial Family and the Adventurer’s Guild? If you break the contract, the Walker family will fall?”
Losing the trust of the Imperial Palace, the Adventurer’s Guild, the Merchant’s Union, and the Freya Cult means the death of a noble.
If the Walker family violates the contract, the downfall of the Walker family is inevitable.
“I, I also… don’t know why my brother made this choice.”
Is it difficult to judge based on the current situation? The second daughter opens her mouth after biting her fingernails anxiously.
“Young gentlemen, please wait here. I will speak with your brother… .”
The quickest way to find out the truth is to ask the eldest son about the whole story.
However, as I recalled the current situation and the events that had occurred in my previous life after the subjugation, I instinctively reached out and grabbed the second daughter’s wrist.
“If you go, you die.”
“Ear, ear? … … What does that mean?”
“They never intended to offer compensation from the beginning. They were probably planning to kill us all.”
The contract states that if the expedition is successful, the contractor will be paid gold.
Of course, when the contractor dies, it is customary for his family, relatives, or close friends to receive the money on his behalf, but it is not a literal breach of contract; it is merely a custom.
This means that as long as you don’t violate the contract, you won’t lose the trust that the institution has guaranteed.
“So, if you kill the punitive force, you don’t have to pay them… … Is that what you want to say, Your Majesty?”
My second daughter, who had always spoken to me with respect, showed anger for the first time and pushed my hand away.
“I understand that there is a problem with the subjugation! But what you just said is a great insult to our Walker family! Don’t you have any evidence?!”
The second daughter’s instinctive behavior to protect her family.
I stood a step away from the second daughter and told her lies in a calm voice.
“In Kyle’s room, there was a plan to kill all of the punitive force by making it seem like it was the work of a monster.”
“… … If there was such a plan, why didn’t you bring it?”
“I had to get out before I could get it because someone was trying to enter the room.”
“Then go back and get it.”
“Impossible. The security would have been tighter now that they’ve confirmed that the room is in disarray.”
At the unconfirmed words, the second daughter glares at Hye-rin.
“I, I don’t really know… … .”
Hye-rin lowers her eyes, avoiding eye contact.
Marie Walker, her eyes reddened and twitching under her eyes at the sight, glared at me and asked.
“Can you take responsibility for everything you said, even if it meant risking your life?”
Risking one’s life.
He immediately nods his head in response to that light remark.
“If what I am saying is false, you may cut off my head.”
“… … Okay, then follow me!”
The second daughter walks over with brisk strides and touches the armor prepared inside with her hand.
“Palace Wizard. Help me put on my armor!”
“yes yes!”
Hye-rin hurriedly ran to the second daughter’s words and asked while helping her put on her armor.
“But, why the armor all of a sudden… … .”
At those words, the second daughter looks at me and Hye-rin in turns and speaks.
“If everything you said is true, then there must be trouble between the Druids and the Walkers.”
The second daughter, who was adjusting her armor, declared while picking up a sword that was almost like a decoration.
“Young gentlemen and I will rush to the Forest of Spirits right now and confirm the truth.”
“Yes, yes? If we go by ourselves and get attacked by monsters… … .”
“There are no monsters in the Forest of Spirits. Isn’t that what you, your lords, have revealed?”
The second daughter’s appearance, similar to her previous life, is like that of a warrior.
Hye-rin let out a sob as she secretly smiled at the positive flow that could come with various situations.
“But… how do I get to the Forest of Spirits?”
“I will go to your teleport.”
“Even if I drink mana potions, my mana stack is empty after just one teleportation… … .”
Mana potions are not drugs that restore a wizard’s mental powers.
In abstract terms, it is about drawing and using future focus and mental power.
Hye-rin’s face, having already used one mana potion, was shadowed with extreme fatigue.
“Then, the two of us can go. Your Majesty, use teleport.”
The second daughter reaches toward the desk and grabs a blue potion, as common as water in the Walker household.
‘Is it the second daughter’s?’
Blue potions are sometimes needed not only for wizards but also when high concentration is required. It is a luxury among luxuries.
“Drink.”
Hye-rin stops the potion in front of her mouth, worried about the aftereffects of the second daughter’s words, and mutters in a crawling voice.
“Because the coordinates haven’t been registered… I can’t send you to the Forest of Spirits…”
“I don’t mind, as long as it’s nearby.”
The second daughter’s words were full of determination.
Hye-rin sighed, gulped down the blue potion in one gulp, and shouted while reaching out to us.
“Migratio.”
Blue particles come out and cover the second daughter.
And then, the space that was the second daughter’s office is changed in an instant.
“… Ugh, where is this?”
The second daughter complained of dizziness and shook her head.
But having experienced teleportation many times, I straightened my back and looked around without any problem.
“It’s a crossroads between Tallinn and Walker.”
One of the places Hye-rin and I passed by on our carriage ride.
The second daughter mutters with a small sigh, wondering if it was an unexpected place.
“It’ll be a long way to the Forest of Spirits.”
* * *
Walker, with its large floating population of mercenaries forming a sea of people, was a place where carriage culture was more developed than any other region.
The Forest of Spirits can be reached in less than an hour by carriage from the Walker area.
But it was quite a distance to walk.
“Gasp, gasp, gasp… … .”
The second daughter, unable to keep up with my steps, rests her hands on her knees.
“Are you okay?”
“… My throat,… My throat is so dry.”
He looks around at the second daughter’s words.
A house with laundry hanging out to dry in the yard.
Knock on the door of that house.
“A glass of water. No, buy the water jug behind you.”
When I show her a gold coin, the woman’s eyes widen.
A woman quickly picks up a water jug, hoping that her mind will change.
“Holy gold.”
When he says this after seeing the Freya symbol hanging inside the house, the woman accepts the gold coin and opens her mouth with a smile on her face.
“May your future be bright.”
Since we pretended to be followers of the Freya cult, there would be no need to report our strange appearance of walking without a chariot to anyone else.
I bowed my head toward the woman, turned my back, and headed toward my second daughter.
“Miss Marie, here is some water.”
The second daughter swallowed water with a haggard face at my words.
The second daughter, who had been sitting down without any aristocracy, looked up at me and asked weakly.
“How much… … is left?”
“It will take another two hours to walk.”
“I see… … ”
When the second daughter struggled to get up at my words, I grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“Take off your armor. It won’t be too late to put it back on before the Forest of Spirits.”
The second daughter, exhausted in body and mind at my words, slowly nodded her head like a child and turned away.
“…Can you help me?”
When the armor was removed, the second daughter’s clothes were soaked in sweat and had deep wrinkles.
Since I was in a hurry to get out, I put on armor over my usual clothes, so that’s natural.
“Let’s go now.”
I, carrying the armor on my shoulder, put the water jug in the second daughter’s hand and moved my legs that had stopped.
“… … .”
The second daughter chases after me with a body that has become much lighter.
“… I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry about?”
“… About the Walker family, about my rash decisions, about what’s happening now, everything… I’m sorry.”
Even talking consumes energy.
Instead of continuing the conversation, I kept pace with her and continued to walk ahead.
“They’re all here. Now put them on.”
The entrance to the Forest of Spirits, reached after walking for over 6 hours.
The second daughter, who had put her heavy armor back on with my help, looked up at the sky and muttered.
“… It’s already this time.”
The time when the moon rose.
The view becomes darker as you enter the forest.
How long did you walk in the forest?
As I was walking endlessly through the Forest of Spirits, the second daughter suddenly reached out and stopped me from walking.
“… Be careful, your highness. I smell something beastly.”
The smell of a beast.
Although it was something completely out of place for a nobleman, I sent my second daughter behind me without any hesitation and took a cautious stance.
“Can you tell me how many there are?”
“… I don’t know about that. I think it’s at least five, no, more than seven…”
Roll your eyes around and look around.
The red eyes of the clawed monkeys seen here and there on the trees and the forest wolves circling around us.
“Keeeek! Keeeek!”
Even the giant eagles circling overhead, thrilled at the thought of devouring our corpses.
“Don’t fall off my back.”
There are more people gripping the sword handle tightly than you might think.
Suddenly, the second daughter placed her hand on the back of my hand and made me lower my sword.
“I am Marie Walker, the second daughter of the Walker family! I have come to speak to our family’s close friends, the druids!”
As the second daughter’s voice echoed through the forest, the animals surrounding us tilted their heads as if they understood what we were saying.
These guys appear before us one after another without hiding their bodies.
“What on earth brings the detestable Walker family’s second daughter here?”
A cold, angry roar echoes through the forest.
“Have you come here with the intention of atonement for your family’s wrongdoings with your death?”
The one who gave the human voice was a white owl that was on the wolf’s back.
He was the master of the Forest of Spirits and a druid who guarded the World Tree.