Chapter 22

Chapter  22

Neville, leaning against a large tree and gazing up at the sky, murmured.

“So unbelievably quiet.”

Their northbound journey was finally nearing its end. At their current pace, they were expected to arrive at their destination within two days.

“Is it always this quiet?”

Contrary to Neville’s expectations, this expedition had been unusually peaceful. Was the infamous reputation of the Bakal Mountains just a rumor exaggerated by gossip-loving thrill-seekers?

The only monsters they had encountered along the way were low-level creatures that even mercenaries of similar rank could deal with easily.

If there had been any unexpected development at all, it was the mysterious woman who had joined their caravan.

With her stunning looks, she had initially drawn the attention of many mercenaries when she joined. However, no matter how many times they tried to strike up a conversation, she wouldn’t say a word, and interest in her faded just as quickly.

The only one who still conversed with her was Neville, the head of the merchant caravan. But no matter how much he prodded — where she came from, how old she was — she only answered with “I don’t know,” and always stared blankly at the sky with unfocused eyes.

‘She doesn’t seem like a living person… more like a doll with a will of its own.’

At this point, the caravan could be considered a success, but Neville still couldn’t shake his unease.

‘It’s eerily quiet. How can the Bakal Mountains, known as the Demon Realm, be this silent?’

It felt like the calm before the storm.

Nothing in this world came for free. He had prepared to risk his life for this expedition.

That’s why he couldn’t shake the feeling that things wouldn’t end so easily.

“Hey, old man. Why are you brooding all by yourself?”

“Don’t you find it strange?”

“What is?”

Camille, the leader of the gold-ranked mercenary group Harlan, sat down beside Neville. Despite being a relatively new group, Harlan had quickly risen in status thanks to numerous achievements.

“As the mercenary captain, you’d know better than me, but doesn’t it strike you as odd for the Bakal Mountains to be this quiet? No matter how I think about it, it’s strange. We've been traveling for nearly a month, and all we’ve encountered are small fry. Is that even possible?”

Camille, despite being a young woman, was an ideal leader who had earned the unwavering trust and support of her members. It was largely thanks to her that the mysterious woman had been allowed to join the caravan in the first place.

Camille shrugged, as if wondering why he was worrying about such things.

“Isn’t it a good thing? No one’s hurt, and if we make it back safely, that’s all that matters. Why overthink it? I just want to be done with this damn camping, get to an inn, soak in some hot water, and crash in a soft bed.”

“I’m with you, sis. My armpits smell so bad I think I’m dying.”

“They always smelled like that, though.”

“Yeah, you bastard. You don’t need to wash your armpits — you need to cut them off.”

“What? You big-nosed punk, you wanna go? You think I won’t?”

“Bring it on, you damn reject!”

As usual, the Harlan mercenaries were noisy and rowdy. With their aggressive personalities, arguments broke out almost daily, but for them, it was just another way of showing affection.

Camille stood up and lightly tapped Neville on the shoulder.

“So stop worrying so much. I mean, anyway, everything’s just…”

At that moment, Camille’s expression changed completely.

“Harlan. Everyone, prepare for combat.”

The mercenaries, who had just been joking and bantering moments ago, immediately drew their weapons and assumed battle stances at her single command.

“…Captain, what’s going on?”

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Neville asked, but instead of answering, Camille simply raised a finger to her lips.

She meant for him to be quiet.

Crackle. Crackle.

In the camp, which had been noisy just moments before, only faint breathing and the sound of the campfire crackling could now be heard.

“…….”

“…….”

The suffocating silence was shattered by the sound of movement and the heavy thudding of countless footsteps from all directions. Quickly grasping the situation, Camille shouted harshly.

“Damn it. I knew something felt off — where the hell are all these monsters coming from?! Harlan Mercenary Group! Prioritize protecting the client!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The moment she finished speaking, a horde of monsters—clearly numbering over a hundred—revealed themselves. The beasts charged straight toward the mercenaries.

‘There’s a lot of them, but it’s not like they’re unmanageable. Still… where the hell did all these bastards come from?’

At this scale, the mercenary group was bound to suffer some casualties. But they were being paid fairly, and protecting the client came with the job. That was Camille’s conviction as a mercenary.

“Let’s have some fun, you bastards!”

Gripping twin curved blades in both hands, Camille charged toward the oncoming monsters. Crimson mana flared along the edge of her dual scimitars.

Slash! Slash!

Camille tore through the monsters with swift, precise movements—but suddenly, a strange feeling crept over her.

“…What the hell.”

Something was off about the monsters’ behavior. Except for a few, most of them didn’t even acknowledge Camille or the other mercenaries. Instead, they ran right past them.

Their faces were contorted in fear, as though fleeing from something.

Camille stared in bewilderment at the retreating horde.

‘Why? Why aren’t they showing any hostility?’

She had lived as a mercenary since childhood, but she had never experienced anything like this.

“Captain? The monsters… they’re just passing us by?”

“Ma’am! This is weird. They’re not even looking at us!”

Even with humans right before their eyes, the monsters showed no reaction at all. Normally, monsters would display overt hostility toward humans.

It was an instinct imprinted into them.

But these things were busy running away without even sparing a glance. No matter how she thought about it, it didn’t make sense.

One of the mercenaries with a big nose exhaled in relief and spoke.

“Whew… I don’t really know what just happened, but it looks like we can breathe easy for now, ma’am.”

“Don’t let your guard down. Stay alert and watch the surroundings.”

Camille fell into deep thought.

Her instincts, sharpened over years as a mercenary, were screaming at her not to dismiss what had just happened.

Monsters ignoring humans right in front of them.

Their faces twisted in fear.

Monsters that had been quiet until now suddenly all moving at once…

‘No way.’

And as her suspicion drew closer to certainty, Camille’s face turned pale.

If her hunch was right, the monsters that had just passed by weren’t the real problem.

Camille shouted urgently.

“Everyone, grab your gear! We're leaving this place right now!”

“Sis, what are you—suddenly…?”

“No time to explain everything one by one—just follow orders!”

But by the time she realized what was happening, it was already too late.

KWA-GWAGWANG!!

A deafening roar shook the entire mountain.

Beeeeeeeeep──────.

A piercing ring filled her head—so loud it felt like it was sounding from inside her skull. Her survival instincts screamed relentlessly in warning.

But her body wouldn’t move.

When gripped by fear, the human body freezes. Overwhelming terror can render a person completely powerless, unable to think or act.

In an instant, the light disappeared and darkness engulfed the surroundings.

For a moment, Camille thought night had fallen. But as a fierce wind swept through, she realized belatedly that this was the shadow of something.

A shadow so massive, it covered the entire area.

Camille and the mercenaries all turned their eyes skyward, as if in a trance.

“……”

“……”

The reason the countless monsters of the Bakal Mountains had fled without even sparing the humans a glance.

A red dragon with two pairs of wings.

The master of the mountain, awakened from a long slumber, let out a roar filled with rage.

---

I rushed toward the cave entrance. Lux Winterbell and my sisters, having already sensed something was wrong, were looking toward me.

“Ran… the situation doesn’t look good. It’s probably…”

Spotting Ron Winterbell behind me, Lux’s eyes widened in shock.

“Ron?”

“Brother… I’m ashamed to face you.”

“At least you’re alive—that’s what matters. What on earth happened?”

Lin Winterbell and Marian Winterbell, who were beside him, spoke.

“What the hell? Where the hell did this bastard come crawling out from? Look at him, the pathetic mess. It wasn’t enough to get beaten up by the youngest—you really had to drag us into this too?”

“Sis…”

With no time to spare, I gave them a brief summary of everything that had happened. After hearing it all, Lux Winterbell asked gravely.

“Sword Demon and a witch, you say… did he have a large scar running across his entire face?”

“Yes.”

“If my guess is right… then the man who kidnapped Ron was likely Talion, the Sword Demon.”

“That’s a name I’ve never heard before.”

“In the past, he massacred the entire mercenary group he belonged to—alone. Since then, he’s been roaming around killing countless swordsmen. He’s a wanted criminal with a red notice in the Empire.”

“Is he strong?”

“I’m not certain, but according to rumors, he’s nearing the level of a 9-star.”

A 9-star… that made him far more dangerous than I expected.

The cave trembled again.

“Ran, are you saying this quake was caused by the seal on the Light Dragon being broken?”

“That’s what I suspect.”

Lin Winterbell cursed.

“Son of a bitch… where the hell are all these bugs crawling out from? Do people think Winterbells are just some kind of damn joke now? Hey. You’re the one spreading that stench around everywhere—maybe that’s why all these damn flies are swarming you.”

“…I’ll take responsibility, no matter what it takes.”

“Responsibility? And just how do you plan to take responsibility? Gonna go bring back that insane dragon’s head all by yourself? You think you’re capable of that?”

Lux Winterbell cut in with a sharp, irritated tone.

“Lin! That’s enough. You know this isn’t the time for that kind of conversation. And as for Ron’s punishment, that’s not up to us. The Patriarch will decide.”

Kwaang!

Unable to contain her rage, Lin Winterbell slammed her fist into the cave wall, blasting a massive hole through it.

“Son of a bitch!”

“Lin. Stopping the Light Dragon’s rampage takes priority right now.”

“Sword Demon and the witch? I’m killing those bastards.”

“Let’s move out now. I’ll take point.”

Lux Winterbell’s demeanor shifted in an instant. Golden mana surged up from his entire body like a wave.

We moved out with Lux Winterbell toward the origin of the tremors.

.

.

.

We climbed the mountain at twice the speed we had when we first arrived. Along the way, we encountered numerous monsters, but they were so gripped by fear that it was as if they didn’t even register our presence.

‘We’re too late, after all.’

I’d already suspected it the moment we felt that explosion and tremor—but now it was certain. The seal on the Light Dragon had already been broken. The moment we reached the summit, the first thing that caught my eye was the debris of the cave where the dragon had most likely been sealed.

Near the ruins, the Sword Demon and the witch were arguing.

“I must’ve been a damn fool to trust a bitch like you from the start. You couldn’t even brainwash one Winterbell brat—and you thought you could handle a dragon? Don’t make me laugh.”

“…If I’d had my artifact, it would have been more than possible. And from the beginning, our mission was to break the seal. Not take the dragon.”

“Then you shouldn’t have even mentioned it.”

“…We don’t have time to argue over useless things. Now that the Light Dragon’s awakened, staying here puts us at risk too. Even if it hasn’t reached full maturity yet, it’s a Red Dragon with a name—infamous for its savagery.”

A Red Dragon? No way… don’t tell me the Light Dragon they’re talking about is…

The moment I heard that, a certain being came to mind—but it felt far too disconnected from what I knew, so I dismissed the thought.

A Light Dragon? No. That can’t be right.

Lin Winterbell, who had been silently watching the scene, suddenly shouted in disbelief.

“Those maggot bastards can’t even see us, huh? Hey! You son of bitches! You blind or what? Yooo-hoo! Don’t you see us standing right here!?”

I turned to look, but Lux Winterbell was nowhere in sight. Before I could wonder where he’d gone, I saw him already swinging his sword at the Sword Demon and the witch.

“Lux! Those bastards are mine! I told you I’d be the one to kill them!”

Seeing this, Lin Winterbell also charged in wielding her massive greatsword. Her movement was beast-like—primal and explosive.

Marian had, before we even noticed, joined the fray as well.

Meanwhile, Ron, Cecil, and I raised our heads toward the sky. The massive dragon hovering above was flying straight toward us.

“…We probably shouldn’t just be standing around like this.”

The Red Dragon had gotten close enough to clearly see with the naked eye. It opened its jaws wide.

Seeing that, I shouted urgently.

“Cecil! Brother! Get behind me!”

A split second later, the Red Dragon unleashed a massive breath of searing heat from its gaping maw.