〈 Chapter 264 〉 Reality and Ideals (1)
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Berta Canyon.
That name was familiar to Raniel. Although she didn’t linger long at any battlefield, she had spent months at Berta Canyon.
The black storm, Belial the Black Dragon.
The colossal disaster that had coiled itself within the canyon.
Even after years had passed, the moment Raniel heard the name Berta Canyon, the structure of the canyon vividly appeared in her mind.
The split canyon.
The plateau where Belial’s nest was located.
And the mouth of the canyon where the Black Dragon’s neck was severed.
“To briefly explain the operation…”
While Raniel reminisced about the past, Destel pointed to the map, explaining the operation. The outline of the operation was simple.
“The Wyverns’ nest is located in Berta Canyon. Necromancers are fortifying the area, creating skeletal warriors. That means a facility is continuously producing the Demon Lord’s Army.”
Destel pointed at the map. Several red dots were marked around Berta Canyon.
“We’ll strike that facility. Whether it’s skeletal warriors or wyverns, they’re tough opponents. This is our chance to wipe them out.”
“Are we thinking of destroying the Necromancers’ tower?”
Galahal asked.
Destel nodded.
“We’ll burn the Wyverns’ nest and bring down the Necromancers’ tower. You probably understand why we set such an operation, Galahal… over there.”
Destel pointed at Raniel.
“Have you ever faced a Wyvern? A skeletal warrior? You haven’t, right?”
Twitched, Raniel’s eyebrows moved.
‘If I gathered all the skeletal warrior bones I’ve smashed, I could build a whole fortress, you jerk.’
Swallowing her words that rose to her throat, Raniel nodded for now. Destel laid out the front lines’ situation and explained the intent of the operation to Raniel.
“Wyverns are tricky opponents. Hitting those flying creatures is a hassle, and even if you do hit them, the Necromancers will just retrieve the bodies and make them into skeletal warriors.”
In a war of attrition, they would inevitably be at a disadvantage.
Dealing with periodically attacking wyvern squads was incredibly bothersome, especially for humans who couldn’t fly.
“Skeletal warriors generally have high resistance. Meaning, magic and sacred arts don’t work well on them. They’re far more difficult to deal with than regular undead.”
Raniel was aware of this information.
That’s why she preferred using offensive spells.
“So, we plan to sweep them away.”
Destel said.
“If left alone, we’ll get devoured. The recent reckless push of the front lines was also to strike Berta Canyon.”
After that, Destel continued explaining for a while.
What started as a simple overview turned into a detailed account of the operation’s flow. Galahal asked, somewhat perplexed by the excessive explanation.
“…Isn’t this explanation too detailed?”
“What.”
Destel shot back.
“Should I just give a rough explanation then?”
He pointed at Chloe, who was standing in the corner of the tent.
“She came to learn. You guys aren’t the sort to leak operation details, so there’s no need to hide the explanation, right?”
“Didn’t you hide things from me every time?”
“For you, I always had to go save the guys I’d abandon. It just wasn’t necessary this time. Didn’t I say that when we started?”
Destel tapped the table repeatedly.
“In this operation, you are peripheral forces. What you do has nothing to do with the plan. So, listen and decide for yourselves.”
Where to do what.
What to choose and what to discard.
What heroes should do on the battlefield.
“Aren’t you here to learn that?”
That wasn’t like Destel.
Galahal felt a bit of discomfort but soon realized the source of his unease. While explaining the operation, Destel kept glancing at Chloe.
‘…Indeed.’
Galahal smiled slightly.
“Yes, understood, Destel.”
“And you, try not to come near me unless necessary. You make me uncomfortable. The knights’ gazes are annoying too.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Though aware the other person openly found him bothersome, Galahal didn’t mind. It wasn’t a new development; he had expected it since the days he used to punch Destel’s face.
He simply nodded slightly and exited the tent. Chloe followed him out.
“Aren’t you coming out?”
Raniel didn’t leave.
She stared directly at Destel. Her bluish eyes bore into him. Destel felt an inexplicable chill from her gaze.
It was as if she could see through him.
After a brief silence, Raniel spoke.
“The plan looks good.”
“What… suddenly?”
“I said, it seems like a good plan.”
“It better be. It’s all I have to show.”
Destel ruffled his hair.
“Not everyone can be like your brother.”
Flinched, Raniel trembled.
With a glare that seemed to ask ‘What do you mean?’, she looked at Destel, who shrugged.
“Sorry to keep bringing up your brother.”
“If you’re sorry, then don’t say it.”
“I simply had to say this.”
Destel narrowed his eyes.
“I know you admire your brother, but let me say this out of caution…”
His gaze shifted from Raniel to Chloe, who had just exited the tent.
“Don’t impose your ideals on her.”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t force her to have ideals. Let her make her own choice. Imposing ideals from someone else will inevitably lead to collapse sooner or later.”
It will inevitably crumble.
At that statement, Raniel frowned.
“…What?”
“You know it, don’t you?”
Destel rested his chin on his hand.
“Your brother forced his ideals, and one of them ended up completely broken, right? You know that.”
Kyle Toven.
That was the moment Destel muttered.
“Hey.”
Suddenly, Destel felt his upper body lean forward. He realized a girl had grabbed his collar, which was right in front of him.
“Enough already.”
Her emotional outburst was excessive.
Letting go of his collar, Raniel silently left the tent.
2.
After exiting the tent, Rania and Galahal headed in different directions. Chloe followed behind Galahal, as it had been previously agreed.
“There will be things to learn from Galahal.”
“Come back well.”
Galahal’s steps came to a halt in a vast expanse of grassland. Rocks were strewn about the prairie, and as he walked toward one, he spoke.
“Chloe.”
“Yes, sir.”
Seeing Chloe’s timid demeanor, Galahal smiled wryly and reached out his hand towards her back. What he grabbed was a spear, symbolic of Galahal himself.
A long, extended spear.
At the end was a platinum tip.
“I heard you haven’t passed your trial, thus you haven’t received the Weapon of the Star.”
“Yes, not yet…”
“Even so, you handle Starlight.”
He recalled the scene he witnessed at the Spell Training Room.
Despite not having passed her trial and not even being an apprentice, the warrior handled Starlight. Not only handling it but even casting spells using it.
‘When did I start to handle stars?’
As an apprentice, he hadn’t even grasped the concept.
Only after leaping between life and death countless times on the battlefield did he begin to understand how to handle the stars.
Knowing that, Galahal understood.
Just how absurd of a being the girl before him was, the degree of potential she possessed.
“What I will teach you is the special attributes of the stars each hero possesses.”
Thus, Galahal wanted to teach.
What he had realized through years of experience.
“Special attributes…?”
“Yes, the Starlight that heroes carry has different attributes. The most prominent of these is the Weapon of the Star.”
Galahal spun the spear.
“In my case, it’s a holy lance, for Destel it’s less frequently used but it’s a sacred one, and for Kyle, it’s the Holy Sword.”
Weapons signifying heroes.
While the Holy Sword is a representative form, not everyone wields a Holy Sword. For some, it’s a spear, for others, a shield.
“The Weapon of the Star expresses the star’s property.”
Boom, Galahal struck the spear into the ground.
The platinum spear tip glowed slightly brighter.
“Destel symbolizes mimicry, Kyle acceleration, and I…”
Galahal turned his head.
His gaze now fixed on a rock before him. He swung the spear toward the massive boulder. The spear struck the rock with tremendous force.
Clang!
The rock shattered upon contact with the holy lance.
With each strike and blow, the Starlight contained within the spear became more vivid. After shattering one boulder, Galahal clenched the spear tightly.
“In my case, it’s compression.”
The spear tip gleamed a bright white.
The light was so blinding that Chloe squinted, while Galahal threw the spear filled with gathered light toward a distant rock.
The spear flickered for a moment.
A beam of light from the holy lance was embedded in the rock.
“I gather up the starlight and then explode it.”
Galahal clenched his empty hand tightly.
Kaboom!
With a tremendous sound, the rock where the spear had struck exploded. The starlight that burst forth from it obliterated the massive boulder without a trace.
“This is how I operate the starlight. Even if the starlight is insufficient, by accumulating it, I can produce a meaningful strike.”
A technique developed through numerous battles.
It was a kind of trick to make up for the lack of starlight. As he showcased this in front of Chloe, Galahal smiled.
“Even without receiving the Weapon of the Star, you already know how to handle Starlight, Chloe. If it’s you…”
He nodded.
“You will find it.”
Your own specialty.
“Would you like to learn?”
Galahal asked.
Chloe slowly nodded.
3.
Raniel had a habit.
Before executing an operation, she would go check the operation area. Though quite some time had passed since she retired from the battlefield, she still held onto that habit.
Raniel headed toward Berta Canyon alone.
In the past, it was something she did with Remia, but even alone, it wasn’t problematic. She had cast multiple layers of silence spells, making her steps light and almost silent.
Rustle.
Walking through the expansive plain, Raniel came near Berta Canyon. The Demon Lord’s Army was hidden within the canyon, so the plains at the mouth of the canyon bore no signs of life.
Just a bit further, and she could enter the canyon.
However, she chose not to go that far.
If she ventured too deep, there would surely be a few sharp-sensed creatures that would notice her. There was no point in unnecessarily raising the enemy’s alertness.
‘I’m not even planning to wipe them all out.’
She had just come to take a look.
As Raniel aimlessly wandered around the plains, she suddenly let out a long sigh.
Hah…
She wasn’t there for reconnaissance.
She was just feeling overwhelmed by the clutter in her mind.
It felt uneasy.
Ever since facing Destel, Raniel felt that uneasiness. An unresolved discomfort lingered in her mind.
What was the source of it?
Was it because Destel was annoying?
Was it because that jerk had belittled her since their first meeting?
Or was it simply because the last words he left behind kept echoing in her ears?
‘…No.’
None of them were the reasons.
Destel showing a cooperative attitude, contrary to her expectations, and not appearing as subservient as she thought were not the causes of her discomfort.
What bothered her was something else entirely.
“Anyone can’t be like your brother.”
The self-mocking words that Destel had spat out.
As he chuckled to himself, the expression on Destel’s face made Raniel recall someone else.
“I can’t be like you, Raniel.”
“Unlike you, I am but a human. Just a mere human.”
To the self that urged her to stand, Kyle had laughed hollowly as he spoke those words.
“I am different from the one you remember.”
“People change. They always do.”
“Unlike him, I am human.”
As she recalled the words Kyle had pronounced during their reunion, the sentence Destel threw at her last came to the forefront.
“Don’t impose ideals.”
That was the dilemma Raniel had held.
Before Destel even spoke, even before he taught Chloe, much earlier, from the time her relationship with Kyle had started to crumble.
‘Ideals.’
Raniel lifted her gaze toward the canyon.
The canyon that was distinctly split.
Between the cliffs, huge claw marks were haphazardly imprinted. Here, she had bound the rampaging Black Dragon, and Kyle had ultimately severed the Black Dragon’s neck.
The most glorious time.
At that moment, Kyle fulfilled his duties as a hero and always strove for higher aspirations. He sought teachings from the Sword Master Kuntel and never stopped training.
‘If he had continued that way.’
If Kyle had kept growing stronger, relentlessly advancing toward a greater height, Raniel had constantly envisioned in her mind over the past few years, the position he could have reached.
Kyle possessed talent.
Kyle was strong. Stronger than anyone else.
Even now, with the truth of the Four Calamities and the hidden history revealed, that thought wouldn’t change. Raniel still thought about it. If Kyle had kept striving upward, killing the Demon Lord wouldn’t have been an impossible task.
By walking the ideal path.
If he could reach an ideal future.
Then an ideal conclusion would also be achievable.
It wasn’t just a simple delusion. When envisioning the future, Raniel was always rational, and based on cold calculations, she saw the possibility in Kyle.
Seeing that, she had forced Kyle to rise.
While everyone praised Kyle’s achievements and settled in the present, someone had to compel Kyle.
“Stand up.”
“Stand up, raise your sword.”
“Lift it, you jerk.”
An obligation that no one wanted to bear, Raniel willingly took it upon herself.
“But now, you say don’t impose ideals on me.”
Raniel murmured.
Her dry voice echoed repeatedly.
“Don’t speak nonsense.”
In the moment, flames surged with her dry language.
Raniel spoke as if chewing it over.
“Do you think I want to do this just for someone else?”
The words she had never shared with anyone.
The words she had buried deep within her heart slipped out through her lips. Feeling the burning heat inside her throat, Raniel tousled her hair.
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