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Chapter 180: Anomalies in the mountains

Translated by SoundDestiny

Edited by Zil

In the western part of the Kingdom of Zain, the mountain range that separates it from the Kingdom of Athena: the Fernigesh Range: stretches from north to south.

A series of rugged mountains cut off the western edge of the continent, with the highest peaks reaching high into the clouds. Up to the midpoint of the mountains, there was low vegetation, but beyond that, the bare brown rocky surface of the forest was exposed.

The mountains, the home of the black dragon Fernigesh, are rarely visited by local people. From time to time, a heavy bass sound, like the roar of a beast, echoes from the uninhabited mountains.

“……is still an eerie mountain. It’s depressing just to look at them.”

Looking up at the mountains, Usuta Gordo, the captain of the thousand men of the Royal Army of Zain, sighed.

Gordo had been sent by Raidorl to the western part of the continent to defeat the demons.

Since the great earthquake two months ago, the damage caused by demons has increased dramatically in this area. In particular, demons have been descending daily from the Fernigesh mountain range, and several villages and hamlets have already been destroyed.

After Gordo was dispatched, the damage has decreased, but the demon attacks themselves do not seem to be going away. The situation is still unpredictable.

The roots and nests of the demons have been left untouched. It’s not going to go away. It would be a lot easier if there was a forest fire or something.

From inside a makeshift fort built at the foot of the mountain, Gordo looked up at the mountain in disgust.

Day and night, the demons came down from the mountains, mostly from their dens in the interior of the Fernigesh mountain range. As long as they don’t knock down the nests, they will keep coming.

If it were possible, he would have attacked the mountain and crushed the nest but it would be suicidal for a mere thousand men to set foot on a mountain where the evil dragon Fernigesh is nesting.

The Dragonborn are a scourge on a par with the Witch of Doom. It can even destroy a country by itself. If they mess with them, they’re sure to get a painful reprisal.

This is evident in the idiom ‘poke the dragon out of the mountain’, which refers to ‘the dumbest thing in the world’.

As a result, there was nothing that could be done but to take a passive approach, killing the demons that appeared at the foot of the mountain, thus making the battle into a standstill.

“Aaaa, I want to go back home. I don’t want to be here with these creepy mountains anymore!”

Gordo mumbles gloomily and begins to clean his own spear in preparation for battle.

Inside the fortress, his men are similarly preparing for battle, or lying down on gorse to rest their bodies. Outside the fort, allied soldiers were also on patrol, on the lookout for demons that might appear at any moment.

It’s already been a month since Gordo was assigned to defeat the demons in the western part of the country. He has become accustomed to the climate, which is hotter and drier than in the eastern part of his native land.

But he still can’t get used to the eerie and frightening sight of the mountains to the west. From the tops of these mountains, which are believed to be the home of the evil dragon, dark purple smoke belches out at irregular intervals, and the stench of decay reeks from the depths of the earth.

For the locals, this is nothing to be concerned about, but Gordo, who has come from the outside, looks up at the mountain every morning and frowns, hoping that he will be able to complete his mission and return to the capital as soon as possible.

In the past, Gordo was a chief soldier in the service of the Barons of Eladin, who held territory in the eastern part of the continent.

The recent expedition to the east brought the barons under Raidorl’s control, and Gordo was also given direct command of the army.

This is a very unusual promotion for a vassal of the baronial family to be promoted to the rank of captain of a thousand men in the national army.

However, Gordo was able to take up this position because of the thin ranks of Raidorl’s men, who had left with his older brother the king, and were short of manpower.

He was not promoted by merit or achievement, but was placed in a position that was beyond his abilities, and he felt the pressure of the responsibility rather than the joy of his high position.

He did not want to become a captain of a thousand men, nor did he want to be sent to the west of the kingdom to lead soldiers.

If he didn’t become the captain, he would not have been sent to the foot of a fearsome mountain to fight the demons that came down from the mountain.

“However, we cannot afford to be weak. To repay my debt to the Baron, I must be loyal to him.”

Baron Eladine had turned against the enemy in the war against the Empire. Although he has been pardoned by Raidorl, he has lost all credibility in the kingdom.

If Gordo, who was under the Baron’s command, could take credit, it would help restore Baroness Elladine’s credibility.

As he was thinking about this, a soldier on guard outside the fort raised his voice.

“Captain Gordo! A horde of demons has come down from the mountains! A horde of Big Rats, numbering between 700 and 1,000!”

“YareYare, here we are again! Put some oil on it and set it on fire!”

“Ha!”

Following Gordo’s instructions, the soldiers spread the oil in the direction of the demons.

The Big Rat is about the size of a puppy and lives in packs in the mountains. Because of their timid nature, they rarely venture out into the countryside, but when there is a shortage of food, they come in swarms and cause great damage to crops.

Each one is not so strong that a child with a stick can kill it, but when they swarm into the hundreds and thousands, they become an army.

“Feast your hungry rats on fire!”

“「「「「「 Ooh! 」」」」」”

A soldier threw a lit torch into the oil. The flames spread over the plain and an orange wall was completed.

One by one, hordes of rats jumped into the fire. The rats were reduced in number as they were engulfed by the flames.

“Yes! Now we can destroy them……Ooh!?”

Gordo, who had been watching the battle from the fort, clenched his fist as if he had done his job, but the next moment a swarm of rats came out of the flames.

It was an unbelievable sight.

The flames consumed most of the rats. But those who were lucky enough to survive would have scattered when they saw what had happened to their friends.

But here they are, stepping over the corpses of their friends and charging through the flames. This is not the behaviour of a cowardly big rat.

“Tsk……Form a line, side by side, and hold your spears! Let’s skewer those rats!”

“「「「「「Oh! 」」」」」”

Gordo gave the order as quickly as he could.

The soldiers outside the fort lined up with their spears at the ready and thrust their spears into the rats that had crossed the flames.

He was surprised that they were not intimidated by the flames and advanced, but they are only big rats. There were a lot fewer of them, and if they maintained their morale, they would have no problem.

Soon the rest of the rats were exterminated and the fort was once again at peace.

As the battle was over a soldier beside Gordo breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m amazed…..I didn’t think a rat could survive such a fire……What was that?”

“…..who knows. The one about the cornered rat who gets the cat.”

Gordo replied appropriately to his subordinate’s words and looked around at the plain of dead rats.

“A cornered rat ……? Maybe I wasn’t wrong.”

A swarm of rats charging towards the fort. What was driving them was not so much hostility but fear of being driven away by something.

The thought crossed Gordo’s mind, and at the same time there was a tremor in the ground.

“Uwoa!”

“Ah, another earthquake!”

The vibrations that suddenly occurred were much smaller than the earthquake that occurred two months ago.

But it was large enough to make it difficult to stand, and Gordo lost his balance and put his hands on the ground.

“Goodness…..when is this going to end, this thing!”

All of them are trying to stay low and bear the shock, but the earthquake doesn’t seem to have stopped.

On the contrary, it gained momentum,and it was there that Gordo finally noticed something wrong.

“C-c-Captain Gordo……Am I going crazy?”

“Don’t worry, I can see the same thing.”

In response to a subordinate who had also noticed something unusual, Gordo looked up at the source of the disturbance.

The mountains of the Fernigesh range were in his line of sight.

It is a place for abomination, a den of demons and dragons that he has looked up to everyday since he was sent here.

The mountains have been moving slowly, like a worm crawling on the ground.

It is as if an invisible giant is pushing the mountains apart, splitting them in two.

“The mountain is moving…….Am I dreaming?”

The true nightmare was about to begin.

As a result of the split in the mountain range, the boundary with the Kingdom of Athena, on the western side of the Kingdom of Zain, disappeared.

Beyond that…countless “Nanika” like hordes of ants were approaching them.