The Berserker’s Second Playthrough in the Game - Chapter 224



Only Krnovel

Episode 224 Reaper of Silver Mirror Lake (3)

Untana’s Council Hall, the cold hall was filled with dissatisfied voices.

“No, how long do I have to stay here? How many days has it already been?”

“That’s what I said! Now, I don’t think it would matter at all if we just left with the minimum number of people… … .”

There were many voices, but one meaning. I want to leave here quickly.

Actually, it wasn’t that special. Untana is not far from Delutana, but it is a destination that is avoided due to the harsh winters. It was now almost an annual event for the counselors and aides who had spent several years here to complain that they wanted to leave this frozen town as soon as possible every winter.

However, if there is one thing that is different from usual… … .

“Whew, I guess the heavenly Elgar also wants his agents to advance quickly and increase his glory… … .”

… … It was the paladins of the ‘Elgar Church’ who were voicing their complaints.

This is how nine knights, three high paladins and six paladins, came to a consensus with the politicians of the alliance.

When the Holy War began, almost all of the church’s Holy Knights wanted to participate in the central front leading to Delutana. It was a land of opportunity, with plenty of opportunities to build great achievements that would elevate your status in an instant, or to plunder loot.

Of course, not everyone can go to the battlefield they want, so the ten of them went to the North. A barren land with no particular danger, but also no particular opportunity.

Nevertheless, there was one hope for them.

Decagram, the brilliant Elgar’s ‘Star’ is their leader.

If He exerts His full power… … It would not be impossible to conquer the northern city with all the might and arrive at Delutana before other units.

That hope was met more fully than expected at the beginning of the deployment. In less than a week, the Paladins were in a state of frantic excitement when they broke through the border, conquered Untana, and took the high-ranking Gasols of Delutana hostage. I thought they would conquer Delutana like this and become war heroes.

But after that, the days continued as my expectations were completely betrayed. It’s been about 15 days since we conquered and stayed in Untana. For some reason, ‘Star’ still showed no signs of leaving.

Still, they were in a better situation. Compared to someone who just entered the hall.

“… …Why are you all gathered here and talking like that? Is there a problem?”

The man wearing a waistcoat over heavy armor frowned darkly. The Holy Knights were shocked and inspected everything in perfect order.

““All for the light!””

“All for the light! no! “There’s nothing wrong, commander!”

“… … .”

The man with a gloomy expression silently threw away what he was holding. Suddenly, a strange and hideous thing fell at my feet.

A stunned middle-aged man, a frightened girl, a woman with her eyes tightly closed, a resigned old man… … . The heads of the citizens were lumped together with their skin sticking and their blood freezing.

As the man spread his hands, all the heads burst into light.

Woof, poop!

“Then you go out and condemn the non-believers like this. What on earth are you doing with ten people crowded into a corner of a room?”

““… … .””

The knights couldn’t even breathe properly because of the murderous intent that couldn’t be compared to theirs.

It was worth it. The man, Ferrant, is the only paladin of the ‘Archpaladin’ status among the members of the expedition. If he had gone to the central front, he would have achieved great success by fighting a large army alone, but being stranded in such a remote village made him more upset than anyone else.

A high paladin asked bravely.

“Excuse me, Captain Ferrant? I may be presumptuous, but I believe that any further stay in Untana is unnecessary. In any case, the commander has already locked up all the troops and key personnel in the city ‘underwater,’ and the remaining non-believers are nothing more than pyramids… … .”

“So, what do you want to say?”

“that is… … .”

“Do you dare to defy the meaning of ‘star’?”

“… … .”

The mouths of those who had been raising objections were tightly shut. In order not to upset the venomous commander, the knights rushed out of the hall, vowing to condemn the non-believers.

Ferrant, left alone, kicked away the scattered hair. He sat down on an old chair and washed his face with a hardened face.

In fact, he also had a strong desire to leave Untana. While he was doing this, the other Arch Paladins would be achieving brilliant feats, and his stomach would turn. He was so angry that he couldn’t even appease them by capturing and executing a dozen or so non-believers.

Of course, I knew why ‘Star’ was doing this, so for now I was just following orders…

“… … ?”

… … Ferrante noticed something strange.

Three High Paladins, six Paladins. There were a total of nine paladins who had just escaped. But he thought there were ten people when he walked in. Breathing, not presence, was instinctively detected by measuring the air shrinking by ten minutes.

Just as I was about to grab the hilt of the sword, an unpleasant premonition overtook me.

“Okay, go to sleep, shit!”

“… … Huh.”

Goooooong – !

Before I could prepare, a wooden dagger pierced the back of my neck.

Ferrante suddenly lost consciousness.

*

Duncan was in great trouble.

Entering Untana, he first looked around the prison area where the prisoners would be. However, only the cold corpses of prisoners were rolling around in the prison, and for some reason, the prisoners were not even visible.

Without hesitation, the next place I chose was the Council of Ministers Hall. Since it is a core facility of the city, there is a high probability that the invaders’ leadership will also reside here. The plan was to capture and interrogate one of them to find out the full story of Untana’s fall and to inquire about the whereabouts of his family.

The plan went smoothly. After secretly infiltrating the hall, Duncan succeeded in putting and capturing a paladin called the commander.

The question is how to examine interest.

Duncan didn’t know exactly how strong the paladin was, but he knew that if someone who could explode heads with his bare hands woke up, it would be difficult for his own head to be unharmed.

It wasn’t difficult to kill Iza. If you stab me in the throat with a hellfire dagger while I’m sleeping like this, I’ll never be able to get over it. But how can a paladin who is awake and conscious be able to interrogate safely? … The more I thought about it, the more confused I became.

I found the answer in a very unexpected place.

“… … “Wow!”

I had a money bag filled with gold coins I had picked up on the way, and there was a piece of loot I had forgotten about in it. Duncan, who was looking at it closely, immediately remembered a surprising thought and quickly started preparing.

After a while, the subject of the interrogation finally came to his senses.

“Ugh… … What is this… … .”

Archpaladin Ferrant realized that he was buried in the floor of a basement, with only his head exposed.

“What are you, you… … . Who are you… … .”

“I, I, I say I am Duncan Wheeled, the best guide! “I’m sorry, but could you just stay there quietly for a moment and just answer the questions I’m asking?”

“… … .”

A look of bewilderment spread across his gloomy face. Ferrante immediately leapt up from the floor and was about to burst the skull of the bearded thug.

But soon I realized something was wrong.

“… … hmm? What, what, damn it… … .”

No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t get out of the floor.

It couldn’t be otherwise. He wasn’t actually buried, but was stuck between a ‘distortion hole’ that fit his neck perfectly. His head was here, but his body was buried in a tight place, so there was no way he could escape by struggling or anything like that.

The little hairs worked well. The sacred techniques of darkness learned in the Great Forest were still extremely useful. Duncan held the ‘Silver Coins of Ruined Country’ left by Ilenia in his hands and sighed.

Eventually, Ferrant also realized that he had been involved in some kind of strange transfer. He was furious, shouting, and acting uncooperatively, but it wasn’t a big deal. He quickly calmed down by just narrowing the distorted hole around his neck.

“Ugh, kehek! Huk, keuk, this, this, let go… … .”

“So, promise me you’ll answer the questions calmly and not yell! Oh, or I’ll keep strangling you with that!”

“Oh, shit, dog, son of a bitch… … .”

… … In the end, Arch Paladin gave in to the threats and answered the questions obediently.

The information I received was more shocking than I had thought. The size of the Imperial troops stationed there was 1,000, the paladin in front of me was an Arch Paladin, Untana had fallen in just three days, and there was a traitor in the refugee group that included my family…

But the most shocking fact was that there was only one ‘Decagram’ here.

“Huh!? If you’re talking about the Decagram, then you’re talking about the top ten knights in the Elgar Order?”

“… … Yes.”

“Why, why did a paladin of that caliber come here? This isn’t a big city the size of Delutana, nor is it a particularly strategic location… … .”

“… … .”

Ferrante kept his mouth shut. This time, even though I strangled him for a long time, he remained silent. Duncan had no choice but to ask another question first.

I received the answer that my family’s whereabouts could be found in ‘Silver Mirror Lake’. All high-ranking families from Delutana are held captive there.

However, after hearing the names of the family members, Archpaladin’s eyes suddenly widened.

“… … Julia? Mrs. Wheeled? What, no way… … “Are you the ‘Duncan Wheeled’?”

“uh… … “Did you tell me my name right away when we met?”

“… … .”

I looked at the insignificant-looking man for a long time, as if my energy had been blocked.

Ferrante nodded, as if she had made a big decision.

“Then I guess I’ll have to do whatever it takes to capture you.”

Then he started hitting his head hard on the floor.

Boom – ! Boom – ! Boom – !

“Uh, uh… … ?”

It wasn’t self-harm. The Arch Paladin’s extremely trained body was harder than rock. Instead of bursting, the stone floor cracked and splinters flew out.

Distortion holes are only maintained normally when the surface is intact. Duncan turned pale and shouted.

“Stop it! You can’t do that! “You must never come out of there!”

Bang – ! Quang – ! Quang – !

Those words did not reach Archpaladin. He headbutted harder again, causing the floor to collapse even more. In the end, the distortion hole became wide enough for a person’s waist to easily slip through.

Ferrante smiles grimly and slowly pulls his upper body out.

“You’re trying to tie me up with this little trick… … . “Have you not underestimated Elgar’s agent, heretic?”

“Oh, no! If you get out of there, you will definitely regret it… … .”

“That’s all for barking nonsense. Anyway, I finally found you, so now I can get out of this damn city… … .”

He ignored even Duncan’s final warning, and the result was this.

Ugh… … .

“… … uh?”

A head split in half, blood flowing down.

Ferrand fell down with an expression on his face that made no sense.

A quiet basement. Brain fluid and blood seeped coldly through the spiderweb-like cracks.

Duncan sighed deeply and shook his head. He walked over to the corpse of the tattered Arch Paladin and retrieved the invisible sword that had split its head, the ‘Razor’.

In case something like this happened, I inserted a knife into the crack in the wall and held it securely above my head. Without even knowing it was there, I pushed my head against the transparent blade equipped with ‘enhanced cutting power’ with all my might, so no matter how hard the bone was, it was bound to be split in half.

“That’s why I told you not to get out…” … .”

The lament of the peddler, who had killed the Archpaladin without lifting a finger, echoed softly in the basement of the Councilors’ Hall.

*

Still, Archpaladin’s struggles were not in vain.

“What, you couldn’t find it there either?”

“Yes, we have now searched the entire inside of the Council Hall! “It looks like the culprit has already escaped!”

“Shit! Then go straight to the east gate! Let’s find out where the captain is… … .”

The sound of the head being struck was so loud that the paladins soon flocked to the epicenter. Thanks to this, Ferrand’s body was discovered before his blood had even cooled. The sudden death of the unit commander calls for an emergency, and the entire force sets out to find the culprit.

And the criminal was currently wearing a night shadow cloak and was escaping by choosing a dark path.

Footstep and breathing sounds were kept as low as possible. Since the search party was all carrying torches, it was impossible to let down one’s guard. Duncan faithfully maintained the attitude of a ‘rat who will die if caught’, just as Kadim had said a few days ago.

His mind was filled with questions and worries. How could he escape the castle without being caught by the search party? Why were the prisoners in the ‘Silver Mirror Lake’ instead of the castle? Why had Arch Paladin tried to capture him? What were the big fish he had seen in the pond?

And what is the purpose of the ‘Decagram’ that came here, and what abilities does it have?

But the moment I turned the corner, all the questions in my head evaporated.

“Four years… … “Why were you wandering the streets alone in the middle of the night?”

“Oh, no, that’s… … My son suddenly disappeared… … .

“I’ll go to the Paladin and listen to your excuses. For now, just follow me, non-believer.”

“Okay, just a minute! Gyaaaah!”

Imperial soldiers grabbed a woman by the wrist and dragged her away. The woman screamed and fell to the ground at the violent handling.

The familiar figure and voice were so recognizable that even in the middle of the night, Duncan’s eyes popped out.

“… … “Julia?”