929. Companionship and Responsibility
The city of Zawoon had a small canyon as its entrance. Passing through it and entering, I encountered many impressive scenes.
‘Just a person, you say.’
Lawford felt a new sense of change in his surroundings. Ragnar’s words, “just,” struck him with a certain sincerity.
“Everyone is swinging their swords with a similar expression to the captain.”
Everyone looks drunk on joy.
“This is Jawoon Ga. This is the basics.”
The answer came from Ragnar’s sister.
Grida, possessing a wanderlust, wanders from place to place, familiarizing herself with the gazes of others. Well, knowing that the other person was a member of the Mad Knights, I expected him not to be surprised.
“What, it’s Ragna.”
Magrun passed by briefly, and Lawford followed Ragnar with a casual greeting. Ragnar immediately went to find the head of the household.
“Are you here to teach me what you’ve learned?”
Blitzkling, Alexandra Zaun’s eyes widened. Her father was equally surprised.
Tempest Zaun had just poured tea into her cup when she dropped it. Of course, she didn’t catch it in midair and drop it.
“Who are you?”
Then his father asked.
Lawford listened to the serious joke and read the bewilderment within it.
“That’s a strange thing to say. I agree.”
Ragna narrowed his eyes and accepted those words.
“Yes, he’s my son. That’s why I’m asking. It’s not something my son should be saying.”
The Zauns are not stingy with sharing their skills and teaching and learning from one another. But my son, he seems to have a way of life that doesn’t fit in here.
He’s a self-centered person. Why would Ragnar come all the way here to teach him his skills?
Tempest Zaun and Alexandra Zaun locked eyes.
“Are you an evil spirit?”
Odinkar Zaun, who appeared next, also strained his eyes after hearing Ragnar’s words.
“The child you gave away, was it something like that?”
Lawford asked in a whisper. Ragnar’s frown deepened.
“You don’t mind losing one arm?”
He answered in a Rem-like manner, and that was enough to silence Lawford. Two more quips and an arm would be blown off. Lawford shut his mouth.
Ragnar didn’t know how to persuade them by reciting the details of his past life.
‘If it were that king, I wouldn’t know.’
What about Krang? He’s a man who could control the situation with just a few words. He’d be able to express his will well.
Back in the South, he was a man who acted like a fool, seemingly without a care.
‘There’s no need to do something you can’t do.’
For three days, Ragna faithfully fulfilled his purpose for coming here: to teach and learn. That’s how he explained the concept of Will’s density to his father and mother.
“Okay, I don’t understand a thing, you damn little brother.”
Although I lost my temper a few times, everything went smoothly.
Ragna felt awkward throughout the entire process. It was during the process of teaching him everything he needed to know that he realized his own transformation.
‘If you walk alone.’
It’s fast. You don’t need to explain your skills to anyone, just move on. Ragna possessed that much talent. That’s why he’d walked alone, without hesitation, until now. And then he lost.
‘defeat.’
It was Ragna’s first defeat. Yet, he didn’t feel resentful.
Perhaps his opponent didn’t kill him because he ignored him.
‘But why aren’t you angry?’
When did it begin?
Even as he walked along the set path, Ragna wanted to walk quickly. He hoped that something new would emerge at the end. It was a way of life he had discovered alone after seeing Encred.
And now, he had grasped a new truth.
‘If you walk alone, you may be faster, but you can’t see clearly.’
It is a gait that walks without looking around.
‘If we walk together.’
Take your time and look around.
‘It’s not just fun, it’s also meaningful.’
This is the benefit of looking back.
‘meaning.’
What did my father swing his sword for?
‘To protect the family.’
In other words, it’s for the sake of those standing behind. Thoughts are scattered. Ragna catches himself thinking in several directions. He now understands their meaning. So, what we need to focus on now isn’t the meaning. It’s time to learn how to turn our heads to the side.
‘As I catch my breath, I can see the path I’ve taken.’
Have I always made the right choices? No. Looking back, I see it. That’s how I reflect on myself and my surroundings.
‘It’s not slow.’
Being together isn’t slow. Two hands can’t build a levee when a storm rages, but when those hands become a hundred, a thousand, they can hold back even a flooded river.
‘It’s not slow, it’s wide.’
Broadening his horizons. Embracing a new world. Thoughts difficult to express in words are imbued within him. Ragnar, defeated by Encred, picked up the embers of his fire. Now, he gazed at the flames, trying to discern the meaning they held.
“Don’t talk to anyone.”
Ragnar found himself lost in his own world. This was rare in Zaun, but at the same time, familiar. Alexandra had bitten everyone around her.
‘Son, your eyes have improved.’
She felt a sense of satisfaction, thinking to herself. It was thanks to seeing in Ragna the look she had longed for.
* * *
Pell had a dream. Perhaps it was because he’d been thinking about his days as a shepherd, recalling his resolve to catch a Loford cub before going to bed.
“Hey, Pell, lead properly. There’s a cliff there.”
I heard Lawford’s voice, but I was standing next to a flock of sheep.
“What are you talking about? How long have I been a shepherd?”
Pell spoke and looked ahead. True to his words, it was a cliff. He turned around to see a strange creature with the body of a sheep and the head of a Loford, looking at him and speaking.
“You’re the one who brought me here.”
“Run away? Well, that’s not your fault.”
“And it wasn’t you who led me here either.”
“You should just go. I brought you here on my own.”
Dozens of sheep with Lawford’s heads spoke and spoke again, then their faces contorted and they charged forward.
“There’s a cliff ahead!”
Pell shouted. All the sheep with Lawford’s head turned around. But their feet didn’t stop.
“Then catch me.”
Falling Lawford says, Pell wakes up from his dream.
“What a dream!”
He woke up, raised his upper body in a single breath, and shouted. The Mad Knights often had several attendants living together. Some of them were also new recruits.
The new recruit assigned to Fel opened the door, surprised, and asked back.
“yes?”
A blank expression seemed to indicate that this was the norm. That single question brought Pell back to reality.
“It’s nothing.”
Pell raised his body.
‘Uncomfortable.’
It wasn’t quite a nightmare, but it was a deeply unpleasant dream. Pel stepped outside, closed his eyes, and felt the wind. The cold air cleared his mind.
‘responsibility.’
The words from my dream still lingered in my heart. It felt like a tangled thread was tangled somewhere in my heart.
I told Luagarne about my worries.
“You just referred to ‘it’ as Prock. You idiot.”
He had the opportunity to demonstrate his talent for angering the calm Prok, like Luagarne.
After spending a few days like that, Pell was assigned to a unit. It was Kreis’s request to fill the vacancy left by Lawford.
“Glory.”
Pell still felt awkward receiving the salute.
“Uh, what.”
Although he belonged to the Knights Templar, he lived more comfortably in informality than in military salutes.
Kreis organized the Border Guard’s infantry in a unique way. Should he say that he embodied the characteristics of the knights he belonged to?
Excluding the units he personally supervised, that was the case.
Rem and the assault unit, Audin and the fighting infantry, Ragnar’s swordsmanship, and
even the infantry unit that was written as Encred’s direct escort but read as the death squad.
Excluding Saxon, they were all organized in a similar way to the internal colors of the knights.
Fel was in charge of Ragnar’s swordsmanship. To be precise, he trained the top ten members of the unit.
If the shock troops were rough and the fighting infantry were steadfast, the swordsmanship was sharp.
‘Do you have any decent squire skills?’
In particular, among these ten people, there was a significant difference in skill level among some of them.
“Sparring?”
It started as a light-hearted sparring session. Then, something that had been troubling my mind became a clear question:
What is responsibility?
The question that began with seeing Lawford remains unanswered.
‘Duty, responsibility.’
I’ve never lived a life that fit that description. It’s a very unfamiliar word to Pell.
‘So can I just ignore it?’
An ominous feeling coursed through his spine. Even in Zaun, Lawford wouldn’t stop learning and mastering new things. He couldn’t afford to be pushed back when he returned.
For days, Fel had pondered what was important.
Using the answers he’d gained, he was trying something new. He mingled with the soldiers. They taught each other, ate together, slept together, and rolled around together.
The initial awkwardness between them had now become much more comfortable, and Fel understood why he’d always lost to Lawford in group combat.
‘They are intertwined with each other.’
I believe what I see from those who lead from the front. The difference between a deputy commander who carries a sense of responsibility and one who doesn’t is enormous.
Responsibility is the key to doing your best in the assigned task.
‘It’s better to show than to ask.’
This was the advice he received from Encred before starting all this. Fel followed it. He now knows his responsibility.
* * *
“It was quite a long way, wasn’t it?”
Teresa nodded at Audín’s words.
“It was too far to walk, but it was fun.”
On the surface, Audyn seemed to be a man who only read scripture and preached daily, but he was surprisingly articulate. He had many amusing anecdotes and was also considerate of others. Teresa, grateful for his consideration, arrived at the Legion. She
had just passed through the white, gold-adorned castle of the Holy Emperor and entered.
“Welcome.”
It was a small reception room. The one who greeted them was the city’s mayor, Noah. The city’s mayor himself had come out.
“They are my close friends, so it’s fun just to see them.”
Noah greeted them both with a bright smile. Teresa doubted whether she should be sitting with someone like this, but she didn’t step forward.
‘Because it’s not my place to come out.’
She was the sword of the cult called the Demonic Holy Land. She fought under their orders. The past never fades. Therefore, her sins were bound to remain forever.
Therefore, before arriving, she had been filled with doubts about whether she could even step foot in the Legion.
No matter how welcoming the Holy Land was, this place still held a sense of unease for her.
Noah was busy. He barely managed a cup of tea before quickly leaving.
“Tell me more about that friend Enki later.”
Then, the man who was said to be Audyn’s adoptive father came forward and guided the two.
“I’ve mostly weeded out the rotten ones within the Legion, but who knows? Where else could they be lurking? I recently caught the remnants of the Demonic Cult.”
“Are they still there?”
“He deceived many of his neighbors. He repeatedly said he repented, denied it, and asked for their protection.”
Listening to the story, Teresa realized it wasn’t like anyone else’s story. She was in the same situation. Then, the paladin Overdeer also came looking for the two.
“Are you here to beat up a few of those guys with a lax mental state?”
Overdeer had recently taken charge of training the paladins within the Legion. So it was only natural that he would say such things to Audin.
“If it’s a sparring match, I’ll gladly welcome it.”
“Yes, some of them don’t seem to believe your reputation. Some even say you were left behind in the Southern War.”
“Haha, you’re quite interesting brothers.”
“Oh, it’s interesting, very interesting.”
Teresa naturally joined them. Audyn helped the knights, who were displaying their fighting spirit, to find the resources to support him. Those who had yet to abandon their temper, while cultivating their skills, abandoned their temper in real time.
Teresa, however, didn’t think much of it. She was always careful about her actions.
‘My existence is a waste.’
From one day on, Teresa made it her duty to fight and die.
‘May I remain by the side of the God of War.’
Her prayer always began with the same: When the time came to risk her life, she would step forward without hesitation. That was her goal.
“You look pitiful.”
On the third day after she arrived in Legion, Noah came to her and said to her:
“What are you talking about?”
Audyn left, saying he had some business to attend to. She felt uncomfortable with the emperor’s presence, unaccompanied and unguarded.
She felt it was inappropriate for them to be alone like this.
“You said you were from the Magical Church?”
The Holy Emperor asked without changing his expression. Teresa felt a pang of pain in her heart.
Everyone has something they wish to hide, but now her shame was clearly exposed. And it was the Holy Emperor, the highest leader of the Legion, who spoke these words.
